Biswambara Kanhar vs State Of Orissa
2021 Latest Caselaw 11520 Ori

                   IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK

                                   CRLREV No. 320 of 2021

                 1. Biswambara Kanhar
                 2. Srimanta Kanhar
                 3. Deepak Kanhar
                 4. Ratnakar Kanhar                  ....           Petitioners
                                               Mr. Amitav Tripathy, Advocate

                                            Versus
                 State of Orissa                     ....      Opposite Party
                                               Mr. Karunakar Nayak, A.S.C.




                           CORAM:
                           JUSTICE SAVITRI RATHO

                                           ORDER

Order No.                                 10.11.2021

   05.      1.        This matter is taken up through hybrid mode.

2. Heard Mr. Amitav Tripathy, learned counsel for the petitioners and Mr. Karunakar Nayak, learned Addl. Standing Counsel for the State.

3. Mr. Amitav Tripathy, learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the order dated 23.08.2021 passed by the learned Special Judge, under the N.D.P.S. Act, Phulbani in rejecting his application under Section 167(2) of Cr.P.C. is liable to be set aside and the petitioners Biswambara Kanhar, Srimanta Kanhar, Deepak Kanhar and Ratnakar Kanhar are entitled to be released on default bail as the period of 180 days was completed on 20.08.2021 but in the absence of any application for extension of the period of default bail, charge sheet has been filed on 23.08.2021. In such circumstances the application of the petitioners under Section 167(2) Cr.P.C. filed on 23.08.2021 should have been allowed

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irrespective of the fact that chargesheet has purportedly been filed on the same day before the application under Section - 167 ( 2 ) of the Crl.P.C was filed . In support of his submissions, he relies on the decisions of this Court rendered in BLAPL No.1197 of 2021 (Rajendar Kakodiya @ Rajendra Kakodia & Another vs. State of Odisha) decided on 18.10.2021 and in the case of Lambodar Bag vs. State of Orissa reported in 2018 (II) OLR 918 : (2018) Vol-71 OCR 31.

4. Mr. Karunakar Nayak, learned Addl. Standing Counsel for the State opposes the above contentions stating that since the charge sheet has been filed before application under Section 167(2) of Cr.P.C. was filed by the petitioners, the right of default bail of the petitioners has been lost and therefore , there is no illegality in the impugned order. He further submits that the charge sheet dated 30.07.2021 was put up before the learned Special Judge, under the N.D.P.S. Act, Phulbani on 23.08.2021, before the application under Section 167(2) of the Cr.P.C. was filed, hence there is no fault on the part of the I.O. in submission of the charge sheet or non filing of an application for extension of time . In support of his submission, he relies on the decisions of the Hon'ble Apex Court in the cases of Uday Mohanlal vs. State of Maharashtra reported in (2001) Vol-5 SCC 453 and M. Ravindran vs. Intelligence Officer, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence reported in (2021) 2 SCC 485.

5. Hearing is concluded.

6. Judgment is reserved.

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(Savitri Ratho) Judge Sukanta