A person found in possession of bulk quantity of manufactured drugs can be prosecuted under the NDPS Act. Grant of interim bail till receipt of FSL report is not a matter of routine and should only be done when the court is satisfied that the matter is being delayed unnecessarily.

JUDGMENT

Avneesh Jhingan, J. - The matter is taken up for hearing through video conference due to COVID-19 situation.

2. The petition is for grant of bail till receipt of FSL report in F.I.R. No. 47, dated 5th April, 2021 under Sections 22 (c) and 61 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (hereinafter 'NDPS Act') registered at Police Station Ding, District Sirsa.

3. The police on 5th April, 2021, during routine patrolling, checked a car bearing registration No. HR26-DW-7236. The car was driven by Mukesh Kumar. Radha Devi, Ajay Kumar @ Sonu (petitioner) and Ravi Kumar were the occupants of the car. On search, from the dickey of the car two plastic bags were recovered. In each bag there were 50 boxes of Nrx Tramadol Hydrochloride Tablets. The box had 50 strips of 10 tablets each, having Batch No. 20J-T-1087, MFG Jan 2021 and expiry date as December, 2022. The total recovery was of 50,000 tablets of Tramadol which comes under the Category Sr. No. 238 ZH, NDPS Act published in Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii) bearing number S.O. 1762 (E), dated 26th April, 2018. The petitioner approached the Special Judge-cum-Sessions Judge, Sirsa with the prayer for grant of interim bail till receipt of F.S.L. report. The application was rejected on 18th May, 2021, hence the present petition.

4. Mr. Deepak Goyal, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that F.S.L. report is yet to be received, the case of the petitioner is squarely covered by the decision of the Division Bench of this Court in Inderjeet Singh @ Laddi and others Versus State of Punjab, (2014) 3 RCR(Cri) 953, hence interim bail be granted.

5. Ms. Dimple Jain, Assistant Advocate General, Haryana opposes the prayer for grant of bail. She submits that in the present case there is recovery of 50,000 tablets and that too of packed manufactured drugs, salt and potency of the tablets was mentioned on the packing.

6. The Division Bench in Inderjeet Singh @ Laddi's case (supra) was dealing with the question:-

"Whether an accused can be tried for an offence under the NDPS Act in case he is found in possession of 'manufactured drugs' which fall in the definition of 'manufactured drug' in terms of Section 2 (xi) of the NDPS Act and has been notified as such by notifications dated 14.11.1985 and 29.1.1993 as 'manufactured drugs', but contain an exception as regards the percentage of dosage in the drug ?"

7. The Division Bench concluded that the person found in possession of bulk quantity of manufactured drugs forming part of narcotic drugs can be prosecuted under the NDPS Act.

8. Before the Division Bench contention was raised that people validly transporting/carrying drugs were being harassed by the police. In that context it was observed that it would be for the State government to take necessary steps and the instructions issued by the Narcotics Control Bureau (hereinafter 'N.C.B.') though are for the purposes of investigation by the N.C.B. but can be used as guidelines.

9. The Division Bench observed that wherever the need is felt by the Special Court dealing with the NDPS cases, that the matter is being unnecessarily delayed it may grant interim bail pending F.S.L. report and the matter be considered after receipt of report.

10. Para 54 of the judgment is quoted below:-

"54. Therefore, the presiding officer of a Special Court dealing with NDPS cases wherever the need is felt and where the matter is being unnecessarily delayed may grant interim bail till the receipt of the FSL report and thereafter considered the case after the receipt of the report.

11. From the quoted para, it is clear that grant of interim bail till receipt of F.S.L. report is not matter of routine. It is only where the Court is satisfied that the matter is being delayed unnecessarily, recourse to interim bail pending F.S.L. report is to be taken.

12. In the case in hand there is recovery of 50,000 tablets. Tablets were packed, manufactured in a factory, having batch numbe