JUDGMENT :

Sandeep Moudgil, J. (Oral)

Relief Sought

The jurisdiction of this Court has been invoked under Section 439 Cr.P.C., seeking regular bail to the petitioner in case FIR No.149 dated 14.11.2022, under Sections 21/22/29 of NDPS Act, 1985 registered at Police Station Lohian, District Jalandhar.

2. Facts

Facts as narrated in the FIR reads as under:-

"Main officer, Ponce station Lohian, Jai Hind. Today I ASl along with ASI Avtar Singh no. 179, C/Ct Ramandeep Singh 1310, S/ct Harjinder Singh 1268, S/ct Harjit Singh 1151 with laptop and printer were patrolling on government car Balero camper no. PB 08 DS 0859, whose driver was S/ct Lovedeep Singh 1312 for checking of suspicious persons and were present on T-point Lohian Khas. Informer came to me, ASI and gave information that Sulakhan Singh @ Sulakhan son of Joga Singh resident of Village Makhi, police station Lohian along with Amarbir Singh @ Amna son of Balwinder Singh resident of Kakhar Kalan, Police station Lohian are on a motorcycle and Jatinderjit Singh @ Jeetu son of Avtar Singh resident of Kakkar Kalan, Police station Lohian is on his Activa Scooter black colour and Gurnam Singh @ Raja son of Gurdip Singh resident of Sahajhanpur, police station Sultanpur Lodhi, Gurpreet Singh @ Gora son of Jinder resident of Latiya wala, police station Lodhi is on his Platina motorcycle and are coming from Tashpur side to Lohian side. They are having intoxicant capsule, intoxicant tablets, heroin and intoxicant substance with them and are coming to town Lohian for sale to customers. If now checking is done strictly by installing barricades then above mentioned all accused can be caught with huge quantity of intoxicant substance, tablets, capsule, heroin. This information seems trustworthy, truthful and right comes under offence under section 21/22/61/85 of NDPS Act. Ruqa is being written and is being sent through S/ct Ramandeep Singh 1310 to Police station for registration of case. Case be registered and case number be informed. "

3. Contentions:

On behalf of the petitioner

Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that earlier the petitioner has been granted the concession of anticipatory bail, but on receipt of FSL report, which disclosed 80 grams of Etizolam contained in those tablets, he was taken into custody.

On behalf of the State

Learned State counsel has filed the custody certificate of the petitioner, which is taken on record. He prays for dismissal of the present petition, stating that 40 loose intoxicant tablets containing Etizolam salt, were recovered and there were four accused persons, who were named in the instant FIR.

4. Analysis

Be that as it may, considering the fact that the petitioner has already suffered incarceration of 1 year, 30 days and not involved in any other case, as is evident from the perusal of the custody certificate, meaning thereby he is a person of clean antecedents added with the fact that investigation is complete, challan stands presented on 22.09.2023, charges stand framed on 07.10.2023 and out of total 14 prosecution witnesses only 1 has been examined so far, meaning thereby conclusion of trial shall take considerable time, no useful purpose would be served by keeping the petitioner behind the bars for an indefinite period, which would curtail right of the petitioner for speedy trial and expeditious disposal, as enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India as has been time and again discussed by this Court, while relying upon the judgment of the Apex Court passed in Dataram Singh vs. State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr. 2018(2) R.C.R. (Criminal) 131. Relevant paras of the said judgment is reproduced as under:-

"2. A fundamental postulate of criminal jurisprudence is the presumption of innocence, meaning thereby that a person is believed to be innocent until found guilty. However, there are instances in our criminal law where a reverse onus has been placed on an accused with regard to some specific offences but that is another matter and does not detra