SC stays Punjab and Haryana HC order granting bail to 26 NDPS Act convicts

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 19

The Supreme Court has stayed a Punjab and Haryana High Court order granting bail to 26 persons convicted of possession of commercial quantity of drugs and sentenced to 10-year imprisonment by various trial courts across the state.

A Bench headed by Justice NV Ramana stayed the January 29 order of the high court after Punjab Government counsel Jaspreet Gogia pointed out that the high court had committed a “grave error” in suspending the sentence of the convicts and enlarging them on bail.

“There shall be stay of the final judgment and order dated 29.1.2018 passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh…,” the Bench said in its order on Wednesday.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had on January 29 suspended the sentence of the convicts and ordered their release on bail on the ground that the cases had to be tried under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and not under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.

However, in its Special Leave Petition, the state of Punjab contended that the high court committed a grave error in suspending the sentence of the accused and in holding that their cases ought to have been tried under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and not under the NDPS Act.

The Punjab Government contended that the high court’s order was “in utter violation of judicial propriety” inasmuch as there were two Division Bench judgments of the same high court in which it was held that the manufactured drugs were part of narcotic drugs.

A person found contravening and in possession of bulk quantity which was such that it was used for other than therapeutic or medicinal purposes but for intoxication or to get a stimulant effect or was in possession of psychotropic substance in respect of the drugs which find a mentioned under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 can be tried and prosecuted under the NDPS Act, it submitted.

The Punjab Government insisted that the accused were rightly convicted under Section 22 of the NDPS Act and were not entitled to suspension of sentence during pendency of their appeals in the high court.

“A bare perusal of the object and scope of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 shows clearly that the said Act was enacted to control the standard of drugs used for medicinal and scientific purpose possessed and sold by registered medical practitioners duly authorised by the Central/state government as the case may be or any other person duly authorised by a licence or permit issued by the concerned authority appointed for the said purpose by the Central/state government,” read the state’s petition.

“But if any unauthorised person is found in possession of bulk quantity of manufactured drugs without holding any licence or permit for the same has to be dealt under the stringent provisions of the NDPS Act as these unauthorised persons are playing havoc with the life of innocent public particularly the youth of the state,” the Punjab Government counsel said.

One of the convicts – Rakesh Kumar had moved the high court on September 28, 2015 challenging his conviction for possession of drugs under the NDPS Act and seeking suspension of sentence.

Special Judge, Sri Mukhtsar Sahib, had convicted Rakesh under Section 22 the NDPS Act and awarded a sentence of rigorous imprisonment of 10 years and a fine of Rs one lakh.

The trial court held him guilty noting that he was found in “conscious possession” of 3500 tablets of Microlit, weight of 1 tablet being 74 mg, the total weight comes to 3500 x 74 mg which was equal to 259 gm and thus the contraband contained the Diphenoxylate salt in commercial quantity.