Wazir Singh vs State of Haryana

H. S. Brar, J.

This is a petition filed by the petitioner under section 439, Code of Criminal Procedure, for grant of bail in case FIR No. 327 dated June 19, 1991, Police Station City Jind under section 18 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (hereinafter called the Narcotic Act).

According to the prosecution story. The petitioner, was found in possession of 1 kg. and 250 grams opium. A case was thus registered against him under Section 18 of the Narcotic Act, and he is in Judicial lockup.

The learned counsel for the petitioner prays for release of the petitioner mainly on the ground that the mandatory provisions of section 50 of the Narcotic Act have not been complied with. He also states that the recovery of opium was not effected before a Gazetted Officer or with his consent. He has cited Randhir Singh v. The State of Haryana, 1991(1) CLR 73, Criminal Miscellaneous Nos. 8249M of 1989 (Joginder Singh v. The State of Haryana D/d. October 27, 1989), 8517 M of 1989 (Gholu Ram v. The State of Haryana D/d. November 7. 1989) and Amrit Singh v. The State of Haryana, 1990(1) CLR 437 to substantiate his argument. Whether compliance of section 50 of the Narcotic Act has or has not been made depends upon the facts of each case and the factual position will be decided at the time of trial only. Thus the observations in Amrit Singh''s case (supra) are of no avail to the petitioner for the proposition canvassed by his learned counsel before me. The observations made in other cases cited by the learned counsel are also of no help to the petitioner, as the decisions in those cases were rendered before the judgment of the Supreme Court was delivered in Criminal Appeals No. 810811 of 1989 on January 29, 1991 Narcotics Control Bureau v. Kishan Lal and others, 1991(1) Recent Criminal Reports 338 wherein it has beet stated in very clear terms that section 37 as amended starts with a nonobstante clause stating that notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 no person accused of an offence prescribed therein shall be released on bail unless the conditions contained therein were satisfied. The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act is a special enactment and section 37 thereof restricts the powers of the High Court to grant bail except when the conditions prescribed under section 37 are fulfilled.

In this case the grant of bail to the petitioner has been vehemently opposed by the learned State counsel and I am not satisfied from the facts of this case that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the petitioner is not guilty of an offence under section 18 of the Narcotic Act. I also do not see any reasonable grounds for believing that he is not likely to commit such offence while on bail.

For the foregoing reasons. I do not find, any substance in this petition which is accordingly dismissed. The prayer for bail to the petitioner is thus, declined.