Chattisgarh High Court
Farida Mirza vs State Of Chhattisgarh on 4 March, 2025
1
HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR
CRA No. 1005 of 2022
Farida Mirza Wd/o Late Chand Kha Mirza Aged About 45 Years R/o
KUNAL
DEWANGAN Bitkuli Chowki Karhibazar P.S. City Kotwali Baloda Bazar, District :
Digitally Balodabazar-Bhathapara, Chhattisgarh
signed by
... Appellant
KUNAL
DEWANGAN
versus
State Of Chhattisgarh Through - The Police Out Post Karhi Bazar
Police Station City Kotwali Balodabazar, District : Balodabazar-
Bhathapara, Chhattisgarh
... Respondent
Order Sheet
04/03/2025 Heard Mr. Praveen Kumar Tulsyan, learned counsel
for the appellant. Also heard Mr. Bharat Gulbani, learned
Panel Lawyer, appearing for the respondent/State in the
instant application for suspension of sentence and grant
of bail (I.A. 01/2022).
By the impugned judgment of conviction and order
of sentence dated 13.05.2022, the learned Special Judge,
(NDPS Act), Balodabazar, District- Balodabazar-
Bhatapara (C.G.) in Special Criminal Case (NDPS Act)
No. 04/2018 "State of C.G. Vs. Farida Mirza", has
convicted the appellant for the offence punishable as
under:-
Conviction Sentence Fine In default of
under (Rigorous payment of
Section imprisonment) fine add.
R.I.
Section 10 years Rs.1,00,000/- 01 year
20(B)(ii-C) of
the Narcotic
drugs and
Psychotropic
Substances
Act 1985.
Learned counsel for the convict/appellant submits
that the appellant is innocent and he has been falsely
implicated in this case. He further alleged that the
quantity of contraband article which is said to have been
recovered from the house of the appellant where the
appellant was residing i.e. 29.104 kgs of Ganja, were
not belonging to her. He further submits that total 28
packets of Ganja were recovered out of which the
Investigating Officer opened only 1 packet and rest 27
packets were not opened and thereafter he presumed
that the other packets also contained the contraband
article and the said fact has been mentioned in para No.
37 of the impugned judgment and subsequently an FIR
was registered against the appellant for the aforesaid
offence. He contended that the appellant has already
served jail sentence for a period of almost three years
out of 10 years of jail sentence awarded by the trial
Court and further, the appeal is likely to take some time
in its final disposal and if the bail is not granted to the
appellant, the present appeal would become infructuous.
Learned counsel for the appellant has relied upon
the judgment passed by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the
matters of Atul Alias Ashutosh vs. State of Madhya
Pradesh (2024) 3 SCC 663 and Nanhe Lal Verma vs.
State of Madhya Pradesh (Arising out of SLP
(Criminal) No. 14769 of 2024) wherein, the Hon'ble
Apex Court has held that when there is a fixed term
sentence and especially when the appeal is not likely to
be heard before completing entire period of sentence,
normally suspension of sentence and bail should be
granted.
Mr. Bharat Gulbani, learned Panel Lawyer,
appearing for the State opposes the prayer for grant of
bail.
Considering the submissions advanced by the
learned counsel for the parties, further considering the
law laid down by the Hon'ble Apex Court in Atul Alias
Ashutosh (Supra) and Nanhe Lal Verma (Supra), also
considering the fact that the quantity of contraband article
which is said to have been recovered from the
possession of the appellant i.e. 29.104 Kgs of Ganja from
her house and further the fact that the appellant is a lady
aged about 45 years and the maximum sentence
awarded to the appellant is rigorous imprisonment for 10
years under Section 20(B)(ii-C) of the NDPS Act and she
has already served out the jail sentence almost three
years out of 10 years and the hearing of this appeal
would take some time and if the bail is not granted to
the appellant, the present appeal would become
infructuous, as such, I deem it appropriate to allow the
application for suspension of sentence and grant of bail
moved on behalf of the appellants.
Accordingly, the application (I.A. No. 01 of
2022) is allowed. The substantive jail sentence
awarded to the appellant by the learned trial Court is
hereby suspended. She shall be released on bail on
her executing bail bond to the satisfaction of the
concerned trial Court for her appearance before the
Registry of this Court on 20.04.2025. She shall
thereafter appear before the concerned trial Court on
a date to be given by the Registry of this Court and
shall continue to appear there on all such subsequent
dates as are given to her by the said Court, interval
being not less than 6 months, till final disposal of this
appeal.
It is made clear that the observations made
hereinabove are only confined for disposal of
aforesaid IA filed in this appeal and it shall not be
construed as an expression of opinion of this Court
on merits of the matter.
List this matter for final hearing.
Certified copy, as per rules.
Sd/-
(Ramesh Sinha)
Chief Justice
Kunal
