DAYALU KASHYAP Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The present appeal arises qua an incident of 11/9/2010 of 10.30 in the morning when Sub Inspector K.S.Singh (PW-5), on the basis of the information received, apprehended the appellant and found that he was carrying Ganja in a green polythene bag on a wooden Kanwad from Bhaisabeda to Pithapur for transportation. The appellant was charged under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 ('NDPS Act') and tried by the Special Judge who convicted the appellant under Sec. 20(b)(ii)(c) of the NDPS Act and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and to pay a fine of Rs.l lakh. The appellant preferred an appeal before the High Court of Chhattisgarh but that appeal was dismissed by the impugned order dtd. 28/3/2019.

(3.) We issued notice on 1/2/2021 including on the bail application as the appellant had undergone sentence of 10 years and his inability to pay fine was resulting in him serving out the remaining sentence of one year. In the course of hearing this matter with some other matter, on 1/3/2021, we noticed that the only point which really arose for consideration was from the effect of provisions of Sec. 50 of the NDPS Act. Since the petitioner had already undergone 10 years of sentence and served about six months in the alternative sentence of one year for non-payment of fine, we considered appropriate to substitute the sentence of one year against non-payment of fine by the sentence of about six months and directed the appellant to be set free. The appellant was accordingly set free on 3/3/2021.