The right to default bail under Section 167(2) of the Cr.P.C. is an integral part of the right to personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution and cannot be suspended even during a pandemic.

JUDGMENT

Ravi Cheemalapati, J. - This Criminal Petition is filed under Sections 437 and 439 of Code of the Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short 'Cr.P.C.') seeking regular bail to the petitioners/A-1 and A-4 in connection with Crime No. 7 of 2022 of K.D. Peta Police Station, Visakhapatnam District registered for the offence punishable under Section 20(b)(ii)(C) read with 8(c) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (for brevity 'NDPS Act').

2. The case of prosecution is that on 19.01.2022 on receipt of credible information about illegal transportation of ganja, Sub Inspector of Police, K.D. Peta Police Station along with staff and mediators rushed to Alluri Park, A.L. Puram Village of Golugonda Mandal and while checking the vehicles, they found the petitioners and seized 270 KGs of ganja under the cover of a mediators report. Basing on the said report, present crime was registered.

3. Heard Sri M. Vinodin Ruth, learned counsel for petitioners and learned Special Assistant Public Prosecutor for the respondent-State.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the petitioners are in judicial custody from the last six months and the prosecution did not file the charge sheet. Hence, the petitioners are entitled for default bail.

5. On the other hand, learned Special Assistant Public Prosecutor submits that the contraband of 270 KGs is seized from the possession of the accused in this crime and they belong to Delhi and Uttar Pradesh State and if they are enlarged on bail, it is very difficult for the prosecution to secure their presence during the course of trial. The learned Special Assistant Public Prosecutor has further contended that petitioners can approach the trial Court for default bail. Hence, prayed to dismiss the bail petition.

6. Thus, taking into consideration the submissions made by both the counsel and facts and circumstances of the case, it is appropriate to extract the provisions applicable to the facts of the present case.

Section 36(A) of the NDPS Act reads thus:

36A. Offences triable by Special Courts.-

(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974),-

(a) all offences under this Act which are punishable with imprisonment for a term of more than three years shall be triable only by the Special Court constituted for the area in which the offence has been committed or where there are more Special Courts than one for such area, by such one of them as may be specified in this behalf by the Government;

(b) where a person accused of or suspected of the commission of an offence under this Act is forwarded to a Magistrate under sub-section (2) or sub-section (2A) of section 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), such Magistrate may authorise the detention of such person in such custody as he thinks fit for a period not exceeding fifteen days in the whole where such Magistrate is a Judicial Magistrate and seven days in the whole where such Magistrate is an Executive Magistrate: Provided that in cases which are triable by the Special Court where such Magistrate considers-

(i) when such person is forwarded to him as aforesaid; or

(ii) upon or at any time before the expiry of the period of detention authorised by him, that the detention of such person is unnecessary, he shall order such person to be forwarded to the Special Court having jurisdiction;

(c) the Special Court may exercise, in relation to the person forwarded to it under clause (b), the same power which a Magistrate having jurisdiction to try a case may exercise under section 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), in relation to an accused person in such case who has been forwarded to him under that section;

(d) a Special Court may, upon perusal of police report of the facts constituting an offence under this Act or upon complaint made by an officer of the Central Government or a State Government authorized in his behalf, take cognizance of that offence without the accused