Bail – Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 – s.37 – Recording a finding mandated u/s.37 is sine qua non for granting bail to accused under the Act – High Court erred in granting bail to accused solely on the ground that she was suffering from HIV, without adverting to the mandate u/s.37(1)(b)(ii), when accused was involved in offences under the Act on more than one occasion and quantity of contraband was much above the commercial quantity.
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 – s.37 – Grant of bail to accused involved in offence under the Act – Twin conditions u/s.37(1)(b)(ii):
Held: While considering the application for bail made by an accused involved in an offence under NDPS Act, a liberal approach ignoring the mandate under Section 37 of the NDPS Act is impermissible – Recording a finding mandated under Section 37 of the NDPS Act is sine qua non for granting bail to an accused under the NDPS Act – When the accused is involved in offences u/ss. 21(c)/29 of NDPS Act, on more than one occasion and when the quantity of the contraband substance viz., heroin is 1.040 Kgs, much above the commercial quantity, then the non-consideration of the provisions under Section 37, NDPS Act, has to be taken as a very serious lapse – Twin conditions under s.37 of NDPS Act, were not satisfied and on the sole reason that the accused was a HIV patient, she is not entitled to be released on bail – However, accused being HIV positive, is entitled to benefit u/s.34(2) of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Prevention and Control) Act, 2017 – In view thereof the trial Court to take appropriate steps to expedite the trial on priority basis. [Paras 8,10,12,13]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Bibhuti Bhushan Bose (With assistance from: Geethika. K, LCRA). Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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