SrinagarThe Jammu and High Court on rejected bail applications of two persons who were convicted by a trial court under NDPS Act after police recovered 33.5 kilograms of charus from a car they were travelling in at Udhampur district of Jammu region in 2012.
Where a person has undergone detention for a period extended to one half of the maximum period of imprisonment specified for that offence under that law the accused shall be released on bail with or without sureties. The thrust under this provision of law is on the words maximum period of punishment specified for the offences under that law and not the punishment that has been awarded by a Court after considering the facts and circumstances of that case, said a single bench of Justice M. K. Hanjura, underlining that the punishment provided for an offence under the NPDS Acts Section 20 (c) which provides that whoever in contravention of the provisions of the Act, or any rule or Order made or condition of license granted there under possesses etc., any cannabis plant and cannabis which involves commercial quantity shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than 10 years but which may extend to 20 years and shall also be liable to fine which shall not be less than Rs. 1.00 lac but which may extend to Rs. 2.00 lacs, the court said and rejected the bail application which was third in row filed by them.
The judicial pronouncements of the law cited by the learned counsel for the appellants/petitioners do not come to the assistance of the petitioners in carving out a case for admitting them to bail. Therefore, the application entails dismissal and it is accordingly dismissed.
According to prosecution, on 30-01-2012, a police patrol party, intercepted a car (Honda City bearing number UP16/5231), at Omara Morh, Udhampur which was driven by the accused Nazir Ahmad with the co-accused Abdul Aziz Khan and Ghulam Qadir on board.
Ghulam Qadir gave a slip to the police and succeeded in fleeing away. The accused Nazir Ahmad and Abdul Aziz were arrested on the spot, police said. While checking the car, 18 packets of charas were recovered , as a consequence of which, a case, bearing FIR No. 39/2012, for the Commission of an offences under Section 8 read with Section 20, NDPS Act, was registered at Police Station, Udhampur. The packets were opened and they were found to contain charas in the form of balls, 380 in number, weighing, 33 Kgs and 500 grams. The accused were subsequently charged for the Commission and were put to trial. On the completion of the trial Additional Sessions Judge, Udhampur in May 2013 convicted and sentenced them to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and also fined Rs one lakh each
The duo filed an appeal before high court on 19 June 2013. During the interregnum of the appeal, the accused filed two bail applications which were rejected primarily, on the ground that the quantity of charas recovered from the accused fell within the scales of the commercial quantity which attracts the bar created under Section 37 of the NDPS, Act.
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