Kolkata, Feb. 19 -- The Calcutta High Court has asked its Registrar General to notify all the Special Judges dealing with NDPS (narcotic) cases that they must inform the accused persons of their right to statutory bail once such right accrues.
The bench of Justice Arijit Banerjee and Justice Apurba Sinha Ray gave the direction while hearing a bail matter of an NDPS accused who was not informed of such a right by the Special Judge. Statutory bail is a legal right allowing an accused to be released on bail if the prosecution doesn't complete the probe within the prescribed time. The accused was arrested on February 21, 2024 with contraband articles. Chargesheet was filed without the chemical examination (FSL) report on August 16, 2024. Period of 180 days since the time of arrest expired on August 19, 2024. The chemical examiner directly sent the FSL report to the trial court on September 26, 2024. The petitioner filed a statutory bail application on September 27, 2024. The concerned investigating officer (IO) submitted a supplementary charge sheet along with the FSL report on October 30, 2024.
The petitioner's counsel argued that the FSL report can't be directly sent to the trial court by the chemical examiner and it cannot automatically become part of the charge sheet. The police (OC) needs to send a report to the trial court on the basis of which cognizance is taken.
Secondly, since the IO failed to submit a complete charge sheet the petitioner is entitled to bail. The bench observed that the defence couldn't prove that direct sending of the FSL report to trial court, and a report simultaneously sent to the concerned police officer, caused any prejudice or harm to the accused. The bench denied bail reasoning that the statutory bail application was filed after the trial court took note of the FSL report. However, taking into account a Supreme Court judgement, the court observed that Special Judges dealing with NDPS cases must from now on inform the accused of their right to statutory bail when such right accrues.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.