No prior criminal conviction of the accused, bail granted by Punjab High Court
TITLE: Beant Singh v State of Punjab
Decided On-: 19.06.2023
CRM-M-28618-2023
CORAM: Hon’ble Justice Mr. Pankaj Jain
INTRODUCTION – It is a question of whether a co-accused under section 22(C) of the NDPS act may be granted regular bail in this specific case, which may involve the absence of any prior criminal convictions
FACTS OF THE CASE
The current petition has been filed under Section 439 of the Penal Code for the grant of regular bail to the petitioner in the case bearing FIR No. 106, dated 14.4.2021, registered under Section 22(C). NDPS Act, registered at Patran Police Station, District Patiala.
The facts of the case are that a white Alto car with a licence plate that read PB-28E-0322 was stopped while the police party was on patrol. On suspicion, the driver revealed his name as Andeep Singh, son of Satpal Singh, the person in the conductor seat as Beant Singh, and the person in the back seat as Karamjit Singh, son of Hardeep Singh. A search of the vehicle revealed a black bag containing 70 intoxicant bottles of Wunicrex, Chlorpheniramine Maleate, and Codeine Phosphate Syrup of 100 ML each, as well as 100 strips of tablets containing 10 Carisoma Carisoprodol tablets. Following that, the FIR was registered. The police party wasn’t joined by any independent public witnesses when the contraband was allegedly found.
COURT ANALYSIS AND DECISION
The petitioner’s knowledgeable attorney claims that the mandatory provisions of search and seizure have been broken. At the time of the alleged recovery of the contraband, the police party did not include any independent public witnesses. On the other hand, the knowledgeable State counsel argues that the petitioner had a commercial quantity of contraband found on them. The petitioner was not entitled to the grant of bail as a result of the conditions set forth in Section 37 of the NDPS Act.
During the hearing, it was revealed that the petitioner had been in custody as of June 9,2022, for a total of one year and seven months. Only one witness has been cross-examined, so the trial is still in its preliminary stages. The petitioner has no prior convictions for any crimes.We are inclined to grant bail to the petitioner after taking into account the length of the petitioner’s sentence and all of the accompanying circumstances.
The Hon’ble court has noted, the petitioner is a first-time offender, it must be said. He is alleged to have been in custody since April 14, 2021, and none of the nine witnesses for the prosecution have been questioned as of yet. Therefore, it is unlikely that the trial for the current case will be over soon. In this instance, the strictures of Section 37 of the NDPS Act can be somewhat relaxed due to the advantageous provisions of The right to a prompt trial guaranteed by Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, and the petitioner may be granted a concession of bail. In light of this, the petitioner is ordered to post bail with the condition that he provide bail bonds that satisfy the Trial Court.
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Written by- Steffi Desousa