New Delhi: In a pathbreaking judgment on bail jurisprudence, the Supreme Court has held that undue delay in trial can be a ground to grant bail to an accused, despite the rigours of Section 37 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985, reported LiveLaw.in on Thursday.
A division bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Dipankar Datta, while granting bail to an undertrial prisoner arrested seven years ago for allegedly being part of a ganja-supplying gang, held, “Grant of bail on ground of undue delay in trial cannot be said to be fettered by Section 37 of the Act, given the imperative of Section 436A which is applicable to offences under the NDPS Act too.”
Significantly, the Court also held that only a prima facie consideration is required under Section NDPS Act, “as a plain and literal interpretation of the conditions under Section 37 would effectively exclude grant of bail altogether”.
As per Section 37 of the NDPS Act, the Court can grant bail to the accused only if it is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is not guilty of such offence and that he is not likely to commit any offence while on bail.
This appeal had arisen out of a case involving the supply of ganja, in which four of the appellant’s co-accused were found to be in possession of more than a hundred kilograms of the prohibited substance and the appellant, one Mohd. Muslim, was subsequently implicated on the basis of the confessional statement of one of the co-accused.
The court also noted that the appellant was only 23 years old at the time of his arrest. The matter travelled in appeal to the top court after the Delhi High Court rejected his application for regular bail.