Criminal Procedure Code, 1973
Section 439—Grant of post-arrest bail by High Court—Appeal—Respondent is facing trial for offence under Sections 8/22 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act—Narrow parameters of bail available under Section 37 of the NDPS Act, have not been satisfied—At this stage, it is not safe to conclude that respondent has successfully demonstrated that there are reasonable grounds to believe that he is not guilty of offence alleged against him, for him to have been admitted to bail—Length of the period of his custody or fact that charge-sheet has been filed and trial has commenced are by themselves not considerations that they can be treated as persuasive grounds for granting relief to respondent under Section 37 of the NDPS Act—Impugned order releasing respondent on post-arrest bail is quashed and set aside—Appeals allowed.
[Para 18 & 19]
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985
Section 37—Application for bail—Manner of consideration—At the stage of examining an application for bail in the context of the Section 37 of the NDPS Act, the court is not required to record a finding that the accused person is not guilty—Court is also not expected to weigh the evidence for arriving at a finding as to whether the accused has committed an offence under the NDPS Act or not—Entire exercise that the court is expected to undertake at this stage is for the limited purpose of releasing him on bail—Thus, the focus is on the availability of reasonable grounds for believing that the accused is not guilty of offences that he has been charged with and he is unlikely to commit an offence under the Act while on bail.
[Para 15]
Section 67—Confessional statement—Admissibility—A confessional statement recorded under Section 67 of the NDPS Act is inadmissible in the trial of an offence under the NDPS Act. [Tofan Singh v. State of Tamil Nadu, 2020 SCC Online 882, relied on.]
[Para 16]
Words and Phrases
Reasonable ground—Meaning under S. 37 of the NDPS Act—Expression “reasonable grounds” used in clause (b) of sub-section (1) of Section 37 of the NDPS Act would mean credible, plausible and grounds for the court to believe that the accused persons is not guilty of alleged offence.
[Para 14]
Decision : Appeals allowed