Chattisgarh High Court
Guddu Gupta vs State Of Chhattisgarh on 17 March, 2025
1
HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR
CRA No. 2222 of 2023
Guddu Gupta S/o Shankar Gupta Aged About 26 Years Resident of
Jawahinarendra, P.S. Tariya Sujan, District Kushinagar (U.P.)
... Appellant
Digitally
PREETI signed
by
KUMARI PREETI
versus
State of Chhattisgarh Through Station House Officer, Police Station
KUMARI
G.R.P., Raipur, District Raipur (C.G.)
... Respondent(s)
Order Sheet
17/03/2025 Heard Mr. Bharat Lal Sahu, 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. 01/2023).
By the impugned judgment of conviction and order
of sentence dated 03.11.2023, the learned Special
Judge, (NDPS Act), Raipur (C.G.) in Special Criminal
Case No. 146/2021 "State of C.G. Vs. Guddu Gupta", 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 20(b) 07 years Rs.25,000/- 06 months
(ii)(B) 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 submits that the
applicant has been convicted and sentenced R.I. for 07
years and fine amount of Rs. 25,000/- in default of fine
additional R.I. for 06 months under Section 20(b)(ii)(B) of
the NDPS Act and out of which he has served out 02
years in jail and the contraband article which has been
recovered from the appellant is 19 Kgs Ganja and the
appellant was on bail during the course of trial and he has
not misused the liberty of bail and he has no previous
criminal antecedents. He contended that the appellant
has already served out jail sentence for a period of 02
years out of 07 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 and further the fact that the
maximum sentence awarded to the appellant is rigorous
imprisonment for 07 years under Section 20(b)(ii)(B) of
the NDPS Act and he has already served out the jail
sentence almost 02 years out of 07 years and he has no
previous criminal antecedents, further 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 appellant.
Accordingly, the application (I.A. No. 01 of 2023)
is allowed. The substantive jail sentence awarded to
the appellant by the learned trial Court is hereby
suspended. He shall be released on bail on her
executing bail bond to the satisfaction of the concerned
trial Court for his appearance before the Registry of
this Court on 25.04.2025. He 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/- Sd/-
(Ramesh Sinha)
Preeti Chief Justice
