SURJIT SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present is a second petition filed under Sec. 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the grant of regular bail to the petitioner in FIR No.254 dtd. 7/9/2022, under Ss. 15, 29, 61, 85 of the NDPS Act, registered at Police Station City-1, Abohar, District Fazilka, Punjab.

(2.) Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submitted that the petitioner is in custody for about 1 year and 8 months and the allegations against the petitioner were pertaining to 92 kgs. of poppy husk. She further submitted that the petitioner has been falsely implicated in the present case and he has clean antecedents and is not involved in any other case and even otherwise also, charges in the present case were framed by the learned trial Court on 18/4/2023 and till date only 2 prosecution witnesses have been examined out of total 17 cited prosecution witnesses and those 2 witnesses who have been examined are also formal witnesses and none of the material witnesses has been examined.

(3.) Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner has referred to a judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court in Satender Kumar Antil versus Central Bureau of Investigation and another, [2022 (10) SCC 51] and contended that when there is a long custody, which is not attributable to the accused and the delay has been caused by the prosecution, then Rights under Article 21 of the Constitution of India are affected. She also referred to another judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court in 'Mohd. Muslim @ Hussain versus State (NCT of Delhi)', 2023 AIR (SC) 1648, wherein the scope of Sec. 37 of the NDPS Act vis-a-vis Article 21 of the Constitution of India has been discussed by taking a serious view with regard to long trial. She further referred to the judgments of Hon'ble Supreme Court in 'Dheeraj Kumar Shukla versus The State of Uttar Pradesh', 2023 SCC Online SC 918 and 'Rabi Prakash versus The State of Odisha', Special Leave to Appeal (Criminal) No.4169 of 2023 to contend that long custody itself is a ground for grant of bail notwithstanding the bar contained under Sec. 37 of the NDPS Act. She also submitted that considering the aforesaid facts and circumstances and in view of the aforesaid judgments of Hon'ble Supreme Court, the petitioner may be considered for the grant of regular bail.