The judgment established that bail may be granted in cases not involving 'commercial quantity' of illicit substances, and the severity of the alleged offenses and the period of judicial custody are crucial factors in determining bail eligibility.

JUDGMENT

Rajnish Bhatnagar, J. - This is an application filed under Section 439 Cr.P.C on behalf of the applicant/petitioner for grant of regular bail in case FIR No. 349/19 dated 09.06.2019 under Sections 33/38/58 Delhi Excise Act & 20/21/29 NDPS Act, registered at Police Station Mehrauli, New Delhi.

2. In brief the facts as alleged by the prosecution are that on 09.06.2019 a raid was conducted by the ACP/Excise Intelligence Bureau alongwith his team at Dhan Mill, 100 Foota Road, Chhattarpur. During the raid, raiding party recovered huge amount of liquor, cash around Rs. 4.04 Lakh. During the personal search of the petitioner by ACP/EIB, 17 dark brown colour small balls from the right pocket of his trouser in a plastic transparent polythene were recovered and 20 pink colour tablet form his left pocket of his trouser in a transparent polythene was also recovered. The same was tested with the Narcotic Field Testing Kit and were confirmed as Charas and morphine.

3. On interrogation, the petitioner disclosed that the main organizer of the party was Gaurav Mavi who had provided him the above said tablets to sell at the start of the party. It is alleged that co-accused Gaurav Mavi also instructed the petitioner to collect more charas and morphine tablets from him. ACP/EIB alongwith the petitioner went in the parking area where a Land Cruiser bearing No. DL-1CT-4678 belonging to co-accused Gaurav Mavi and a Honda City Car of the petitioner were found parked. It is alleged that from the boot of Honda City 12 bottles of Absolute Vodka alongwith one small silver colour and one big sky blue colour weighing machine were recovered. ACP/EIB informed the local police who came at the spot and the articles produced by ACP/EIB were seized vide seizure memo and sealed with the seal of YD and the present FIR U/s 33/38/58 Delhi Excise Act and 20/21 NDPS Act was registered. The morphine tablets were weighed and the same was found to be 6.2 grams approximately.

4. It is submitted by the Ld. counsel for the applicant/petitioner that the recovery of 6.2 grams of morphine falls in non commercial quantity, therefore the embargo of Section 37 of the NDPS Act is not attracted. It is further submitted that the petitioner is in J.C. since 09.06.2019 and he has no criminal antecedents and has been falsely implicated at the instance of the police officials. It is further submitted that no public person has been joined in the raiding party despite the secret information. It is further submitted that there is non compliance of Section 42 and 50 of the NDPS Act. It is further submitted that as per the allegations of the prosecution besides narcotic substances huge quantity of illicit liquor was recovered but the co-accused from whom much more quantity of alleged illicit liquor was recovered as compared to the petitioner has already been admitted to bail. It is further urged that there is no apprehension of the petitioner tampering with the evidence or threatening the witnesses as all the witnesses are police officials.

5. It is submitted by the Ld. APP for the state that the petitioner is one of the organizer of the party and in his name the license of the party was taken from the authorities. He further urged that the allegations against the petitioner are grave and serious in nature and if released on bail, the petitioner may tamper with the evidence and there is likelihood of the petitioner fleeing away from justice.

6. At this juncture it may be mentioned that the Supreme Court in Basheer @ N.P. Basheer v. State of Kerala, (2004) CriLJ 1418 : MANU/SC/0117/2004 noticed that as a consequence of the Amending Act coming into force on 2.10.2001, the sentencing structure has undergone a drastic change. The Act introduced the concept of "commercial quantity" in relation to narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances by adding Clause (vii-a) in Section 2, which defines this term as any quantity greater than the quantity specified by the Central Government by notificat