Kishan Chagan Kale And 2 Others vs State Of Telangana
2022 Latest Caselaw 4340 Tel

         THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE K.SURENDER

             CRIMINAL PETITION NO. 6915 OF 2022

ORDER:

This Criminal Petition is filed under Sections 437 and 439 of

Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short "Cr.P.C") seeking to

enlarge the petitioners/A1 to A3 on bail pending trial in NDPS SC

No.24 of 2022 (Cr.NCBF.No.48/1/7/2021/NCB/SUBZone/Hyd,

dated 05.05.2021) on the file of Metropolitan Sessions Judge-cum-

I Additional District Judge, Ranga Reddy.

2. The case of the prosecution is that on 20.06.2021, the

respondent-NCB has filed a complaint before the Metropolitan

Sessions Judge-cum-I Additional District Judge, Ranga Reddy

under NDPS Act alleging commission of offence under Section 8(c)

r/w 20(b)(ii)(c), 27A, 28 and Section 29 of NDPS Act. The

allegation in brief is that the NCB personnel formed into a team

and on information apprehended three accused in possession of

2198 kgs of ganja. According to the complaint, all the necessary

requirements under the NDPS Act were met while conducting the

investigation.

3. Sri V.Gopalakrishna Gokhaley, learned counsel for the

petitioners submits that there is; i) violation of Section 42 of NDPS

Act; ii) violation of Standing Orders for seizure and sampling of

contraband; iii) violation of Section 57.

4. Briefly, the argument of the learned counsel for the

petitioners is that there was no authorization, which was given for

conducting raid after sunset. There are no reasons which are

assigned to conduct such raid after the sunset, for which reason,

the petitioners are entitled to bail. Further, the sampling was not

done in accordance with the standing orders.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioners relied upon a judgment of

this Court in Crl.P.No.4428 of 2022 and drawn the attention of

this Court to Standing Orders and also the Judgment of the

Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Sukhdev Singh v. State of

Haryana1 wherein the Hon'ble Supreme Court held that when

there is non compliance of Section 42 of the Act, the proceedings

are vitiated.

6. On the other hand, Sri B.Narsimha Sharma, learned

Standing Counsel for NCB submits that at this stage of

consideration of bail would require a finding that the petitioners

are not guilty as required under Section 37 of the Act and would

AIR 2013 SC 953

amount to not giving an opportunity to the prosecution to conduct

trial.

7. Several grounds are raised both technical and factual in

support of their arguments by the petitioners seeking bail. Since

the complaint is already filed, all the grounds can be raised during

the course of trial. Grounds raised by the petitioners in the

present application, if discussed, would have an adverse impact on

the trial, for which reason, this Court not inclined to discuss the

correctness or otherwise of the grounds raised by the petitioners.

However, since the petitioners are in jail since 05.06.2021, the

trial Court is directed to conduct trial on day to day basis as

required under Section 309 of IPC till completion of trial. The said

process shall be concluded within a period of six months from the

date of this order, failing which, the petitioners shall be at liberty

to move the Court for bail.

8. With the above direction, this Criminal Petition is disposed

off.

_________________ K.SURENDER, J Date: 26.08.2022 kvs

THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE K.SURENDER

CRIMINAL PETITION NO. 6915 OF 2022

Dt.26.08.2022

kvs