Criminal Procedure Code, 1973
Section 167(2)—Statutory bail—Entitlement—NDPS case—Full Bench of Calcutta High Court in Subhas Yadav v. State of West Bengal, 2023 SCC Online Cal 313 issued guidelines relating to statutory bail in NDPS cases—Madras High Court is in complete agreement with the conclusions arrived at by the Calcutta High Court—Special Courts across the State directed to follow these guidelines in letter and spirit—Special Courts must get rid of the practice of dealing with extension petition and statutory bail petition together—Scope of both these petitions are very different and it must be keep in mind by the Special Courts.
[Paras 23 & 24]
Sections 167(2) & 482—Statutory bail—Entitlement—Petition under Section 482 of CrPC has been filed challenging the written endorsement of the court below wherein the statutory bail petition filed by the petitioner was returned on the ground that the charge-sheet has already been filed by the respondent—Final report is said to have been filed through e-filing platform and cognizance of final report was taken after two days of e-filing and case was also numbered on the same day—Such filing is officially recognized to be the date of filing of the final report and it is nobody's case that an incomplete final report was filed—Even the day of e-filing was a working day i.e. Monday and final report along with materials had reached the e-filing portal of the Special Court—In this digital era, it is too late in the day to claim that e-filing of final report cannot be construed as the date of filing and it is only the physical availability of papers that should be construed as the actual date of filing—As per the scheme of CrPC, once the charge-sheet is filed before the court within statutory period, that must be taken to be sufficient compliance with the provision under Section 167 of CrPC—It is immaterial as to whether cognizance of that final report was taken or not within the statutory period—No merit found to interfere with written endorsement made by court below, returning the statutory bail application filed by the petitioner—Petition dismissed.
[Paras 13, 14 & 19 to 21]
Practice and Procedure
Date of e-filing—If e-filing mechanism is officially recognized as a mode of filing, obviously the date of e-filing must be taken to be the date of filing—At the time of filing, the papers are on a soft copy mode and later, it translates itself into a hard copy—Date on which the hard copy is brought before the Court cannot be taken to be the date of filing and in every case, the date of filing can only be the date on which the e-filing is done and that should be incorporated as the date of filing in the official website—Such practice has to be consistently followed by all the courts in order to avoid any future confusion.
[Para 13]