Point of Law: No person shall sell, purchase, consume or use any psychotropic substance except in accordance with Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 Provided that sale, purchase, consumption or use of a psychotropic substance specified in Schedule I shall be only for purposes mentioned in Chapter VIIA

JUDGMENT :

1. The petitioner herein has been arrested and is in custody in connection with Complaint No.1/2020 registered at the office of the Central Bureau of Narcotics (hereinafter referred to as CBN) at Chittorgarh for the offence under Section 8/22 of the NDPS Act. He has filed the instant application under Section 439 CrPC with a prayer to release him on bail.

2. At the outset, it may be stated that the petitioner is a medical professional, having qualification of M.D. (Psychiatry). Looking to the submissions made on behalf of the petitioner that he was suffering from ailments, this court vide order dated 31.03.2020 directed medical examination of the petitioner through a Government Medical Officer. In furtherance of this direction, the report of the petitioner’s medical examination was received. Finding that the petitioner was suffering from neurological ailments, to be specific, spinal chord issues, this court granted interim bail to the petitioner on medical grounds vide order dated 09.04.2020, which has been extended from time to time. While extending the interim bail of the petitioner, it was observed in order dated 20.07.2020 that the petitioner has been advised spinal surgery at the Fortis Hospital. The bail application was heard on merits on 21.09.2021.

3. Brief facts relevant and essential for disposal of the bail application are noted hereinbelow :

4. The petitioner operates two medical institutions in the name of Jyani Kalawati Hospital, one at Birbal Chowk, Sri Ganganagar and the other at Mandi Dabwali, Sirsa, Haryana. Mr. Shailesh Kumar Mishra, Inspector, CBN, claims to have received an information on 21.02.2020 that the petitioner was indulging in illegal transactions of medicinal drugs having narcotic/psychotropic content and if the inspection of the Jyani Kalawati Hospitals at Sri Ganganagar and Mandi Dabwali was undertaken, huge irregularities could be found. Accordingly, two teams of CBN officials were constituted, one for the search of Jyani Kalawati Hospital, Mandi Dabwali (Punjab & Haryana) and the other for the search of Jyani Kalawati Hospital, Sri Ganganagar. Both the teams carried out search operations and inspected the premises. The petitioner was found present at Jyani Kalawati Hospital, Sri Ganganagar. Psychotropic drugs were found in the stock at both the medical institutions, the inventory whereof was prepared. During the course of investigation, details regarding procurement of the drugs in question were sought for and it came to light that all the medicinal preparations had been lawfully procured by the hospitals from approved sources. In the complaint, the Investigating Officer has catalogued the list of drugs seized/used at the two hospitals from the year 2018 to 2020 and at the end of each inventory, a categoric statement has been made that the sale of medicines to the petitioner’s institutions was lawful and did not indicate any irregularity. However, after concluding investigation, a complaint came to be filed against the petitioner in the competent court with the allegation that records of previous three years of both the hospitals were checked and audited. Certain irregularities were allegedly noticed in maintenance of records. A pertinent allegation was made that Form No.7 prescribed under Rule 67-A of the NDPS Rules was not maintained strictly in accordance with the requirement of the statute. Para No.14 of the complaint is relevant to the controversy and is reproduced hereinbelow for the sake of ready reference:-

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