Section 441A CrPC reads as follows: “Declaration by sureties- Every person standing surety to an accused person for his release on bail, shall make a declaration before the Court as to the number of persons to whom he has stood surety including the accused, giving therein all the relevant particulars.”
This provision suggests that a person can stand surety to more than one accused person, but he needs to make a declaration regarding this before the Court.
In Tabassum Parveen vs State Of U.P. . the Allahabad High Court observed thus : Perusal of this Section shows that, a person who is intending to be the surety of any accused person is obliged to declare before the Court that apart from the person to whom he is standing surety, for how many other accused persons, he has stood surety. Therefore, the texture of the Section 441-A of the Cr.P.C., which has been introduced by way of amendment made in the year 2006 clearly reflects that, a person may stand surety for more than one accused person and in more than one case. So there appears no bar for a person to stand surety in more than one case and also for more than one accused person. However, as stated earlier, the status, verification and the competency of the surety will always be assessed by the trial court before acceptance.
A District Court in Delhi noted that the purpose and the object of the provisions of Section 441-A Cr.P.C. is to curb practice of one person standing surety for different persons and thus keep a check on bogus sureties. However, it was held that even if a person has stood surety in number of cases, but the concerned Court finds him financially sound to the amount of surety bond and otherwise having control over the accused, the Section 441-A Cr.P.C., does not put a bar on the Court to accept such a person as a surety of the accused before it.