On 5 September 2019, the Supreme Court refused pre-arrest bail to P. Chidambaram in the INX Media Enforcement Directorate matter, holding that anticipatory bail must be exercised sparingly in economic offences, which stand as a class apart — the gravity of the offence, the need for custodial interrogation, and the stage of the investigation weigh against the discretion under Section 438. A digest of the anticipatory-bail holding, its distinction from the regular-bail grant that followed on 4 December 2019, and how the 'class apart' line has since been nuanced by the speedy-trial bail jurisprudence.