MANDER SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Being aggrieved by the judgment and order dated 22.5.2001 by which the appellant was convicted for offence under Section 15 of the NDPS Act and was sentenced to undergo RI for 10 years and to pay a fine of Rs.1 lac, the present appeal was filed by the appellant-convict.

(2.) This appeal was taken up for final hearing by this Court and was decided by judgment and order dated 21.8.2013. This Court by the said judgment and order had found that the appellant had undergone 2 years, 8 months, 23 days of actual sentence by 9-8-2002 and is not facing any other trial under the NDPS Act and the recovery was only 25 kilograms poppy husk which was below commercial quantity and therefore the sentence was reduced to the one already undergone. The appeal was carried to the Supreme Court by the State and the Supreme Court in Crl. Appeal No. 1684 of 2015, set aside the judgment of the learned Single Judge of this Court and held that the sentence could not be reduced merely because the quantity of 25 kilograms of poppy husk was below commercial quantity prescribed. However, the Apex Court made the following observations while disposing of the said criminal appeal:-

(3.) It is in the light of the above, after remand the appeal is required to be decided again.