Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court said in a land mark ruling that offences involving small quantities of drugs are bailable, The Indian Express reported.
Granting anticipatory bail to Kuldeep Singh alias Keepa, Justice Anoop Chitkara said that keeping first-time offenders in jail could go against the purpose of judicial discretion in bail matters.
The court made it clear that individuals caught with small quantities of drugs must be granted bail.
The court’s ruling, according to the report, could have ripple effect in how police handle minor drug seizing cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The court said that offences involving small quantities of drugs do not fall under the bail provisions of Section 37 of the NDPS Act.
Kuldeep Singh, who was implicated in a case filed under Section 21(a) of the NDPS Act after the alleged confession of a co-accused for the possession of heroin, approached the high court for anticipatory bail.
When police in Talwandi Sabo, Bathinda district, were questioning Gurdeep Singh after recovering gram of heroin from him, Singh allegedly claimed he had purchased the drug from Kuldeep.
When the trial court denied him anticipatory bail Kuldeep approached the high court where his counsel argued that confession made to a police officer was inadmissible as an evidence.
It was then the court said that as the quantity recovered was classified as “small” under the NDPS Act, the offence is bailable.
Justice Chitkara said: ‘If an accused does not get anticipatory bail even in such a case, then the enactment of Section 482 BNSS, 2023 (analogous to Section 438 CrPC) itself shall become redundant, which cannot be the legislative intention.’
The court pointed out that the Section 37 of the NDPS Act nevertheless treats offences involving “commercial quantities” as non-bailable, it does not hand the same restriction to cases involving small quantities, according to The Indian Express.