Uttarakhand High Court
BA1/811/2025 on 24 June, 2025
Author: Rakesh Thapliyal
Bench: Rakesh Thapliyal
2025:UHC:5342
Office Notes,
reports, orders
or proceedings
SL.
Date or directions COURT'S OR JUDGE'S ORDERS
No.
and Registrar's
order with
Signatures
BA1 No. 811 of 2025
Hon'ble Rakesh Thapliyal, J.
1. None appears for the applicant. Ms. Sukhwani
Singh is appointed as an Amicus Curiae in order to
assist this court
2. Mr. Siddhartha Bisht, learned A.G.A. for the
State.
3. .
4. The present applicant ‘Rakesh’ is praying for
regular bail in relation to First Information Report
dated 29.03.2025 bearing FIR No. 68 of 2025, P.S.
Sahaspur, District Dehradun, wherein, the present
applicant was implicated for the offence punishable
under Section 8/20 of the NDPS Act.
5. It is submitted by the learned Amicus Curiae
that the applicant is innocent and has been falsely
implicated and though the alleged contraband of
charas which is shown to be recovered from the
present applicant is commercial one, therefore,
Section 37 of the NDPS Act will come into his way
and in reference to this it is submitted that the
applicant was arrested after the sunset without
complying with the provisions of Section 42 of the
NDPS Act, which infact is mandatory. She further
submits that a specific averment has been made to
this effect in paragraph 12 of the bail application, but
there is no any specific denial in the counter
affidavit.
6. Apart from this, it is submitted that there is no
proper compliance of Section 50 of the NDPS Act.
Apart from this, it is also argued that the inventory
was prepared at the spot and the inventory so
prepared is not in the prescribed Form 4 under Rule
8 of the NDPS (Seizure, Storage, Sampling and
Disposal) Rules 2022. She further argued that the
inventory report as it appears from the face of it is
partially hand written and is not properly certified
by the Magistrate since there is only an endorsement
of seen of concerned Magistrate, which is certainly
not as per the mandate of Section 52A of the NDPS
Act.
7. It is further argued by the learned Amicus
Curiae that the applicant have no previous criminal
2025:UHC:5342
history and if the applicant is bailed out then there is
less possibility that the applicant will repeat the
crime.
8. On the other side, learned State counsel
submits that the procedural lapse in following the
procedure as prescribed under Section 52A of the
NDPS Act will not vitiate the trial and the same is
subject matter of the trial and therefore in view of
Section 37 of the NDPS Act the applicant does not
deserve for bail; however, learned State counsel
have not disputed this fact that the applicant has no
previous criminal history.
9. Inventory has been placed on record
alongwith the counter affidavit and the same is
partially handwritten and furthermore there is no
proper certification by the Magistrate and only
endorsement has been made therein and prima-facie
it appears that there is no proper certification.
10. Consequently, after hearing the arguments of
learned counsel for the parties and further taking
into consideration the inventory and other material
placed on record it appears that there is no proper
substantial compliance of Section 52A of the NDPS
Act and as such this court is of the view that there
are the reasonable grounds that the applicant is not
guilty of the offence so alleged to be committed and
since the applicant has no previous criminal history,
therefore, if the applicant is bailed out, this court is
of the view that the applicant will not repeat the
offence. In view of the observations as above the
twin conditions as stipulated under Section 37 of
NDPS Act are fulfilled.
11. Accordingly, without expressing any opinion
on the merit of the case the bail application is
allowed. It is made clear that ongoing trial will not
be influence with observations as made above.
12. Let the applicant ‘Rakesh’ be released on bail
on furnishing his personal bond and two sureties
each of the like amount to the satisfaction of the
court concerned.
(Rakesh Thapliyal, J.)
24.06.2025
PR
2025:UHC:5342