Kolkata, March 23 -- Observing that courts should not adopt a technical approach in matters touching on personal liberty of a citizen, the Calcutta High Court gave bail to an accused in a narcotic case where bail application was pending beyond statutory period of 180 days till a supplementary chargesheet was filed with a forensic report.

The bench of Justice Arijit Banerjee and Justice Apurba Sinha Ray quoted from the 'The Vision' novel by the renowned Lebanese-American author Kahlil Gibran which said "life without liberty is like a body without spirit". In case of confusion in matters of personal liberty of a person, court should lean in favour of a construction which protects such right rather than negates it, court observed. On the 84th day of the arrest a charge sheet was filed without a FSL report of the seized substance. On the 172nd day, his bail prayer was rejected by trial court. On the 179th day, he again affirmed the same bail application before the Oath Commissioner, High Court and filed the same. On the 200th day after arrest, a supplementary chargesheet was filed with an FSL report.

Defence counsel argued that when the second charge sheet was filed with the FSL report, his bail application was already pending. Though it was filed before 180 days expiry, he should have been informed of his default bail right on the 181 day. His application should have been treated as one for statutory bail. Prosecution questioned whether the court can convert an application filed prior to expiry of the 180 days statutory period into a default bail application after expiry of 180 days.

Court observed that beyond the 180 days, magistrates cease to have the power to keep the accused person in custody.

If bail application is not taken up and a valid charge-sheet is filed during pendency, it cannot adversely affect the indefeasible right of the accused which was exercised by filing an application, the court observed and granted bail by treating the application as one of default bail.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.