JUDGMENT :

Anoop Chitkara, J.

1. The petitioner incarcerated in the FIR captioned above had come up before this Court under Section 483 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, [BNSS], seeking regular bail.

2. Per paragraph 14 of the bail application and paragraph 9 of status report, the accused has the following criminal antecedents:

3. The facts and allegations are taken from the status report filed by the State. On 28.07.2023, based on a chance recovery, the Police seized 305 grams of Heroin from the petitioner and co-accused. The Investigator claims to have complied with all the statutory requirements of the NDPS Act, 1985, and CrPC, 1973.

4. The petitioner's counsel prays for bail by imposing any stringent conditions and contends that further pre-trial incarceration would cause an irreversible injustice to the petitioner and their family.

5. The State's counsel opposes bail and refers to the status report.

REASONING:

6. Counsel for the petitioner submits that there is dis-parity in the colour of the Heroin which was shown to have been recovered from the colour of the substance as noticed in the laboratory. State counsel submits that there is no difference of colour and infact, in Punjabi language, off white can also be termed as brown (bhura). These are the shades of colours which would depend upon the perception of person and even some people can be colour blind to the extent of noticing the exact colour. State counsel submits that as such, all these have to be tested during trial and petitioner is not entitled to bail on the ground of dis-parity of colour.

7. An analysis of the pleadings would lead to the following outcome. Petitioner counsel's argument that initial colour was off white material whereas as per the seizure memo Annexure P-2 the material which was recovered was brown in colour, as such there is huge difference between off white and brown and it means that what was shown to have been recovered was changed from what was actually recovered. To analyse the arguments and counter arguments, it would be appropriate to refer to relevant portion of FSL report which reads as follows:

'6. Articles Received: One yellow coloured paper envelope (s/v Sonu and others) lavelled as 'Secret Drug Sample Parcel Test Memo' sealed with four deals, two each of 'JS' and 'PS', which on opening found to contain another yellow coloured paper envelope labelled as 'Duplicate Drug Sample Parcel' sealed with four seals, two each of 'JS' and 'PS' and alleged to contain Heroin. Seals on the envelopes were found intact and tallied with the specimen seal impressions.

7. Quantity of Sample: On opening the 'Duplicate' envelope was found to contain a plastic container, wrapped in silver foil, having a zip lock polythene pouch containing Five (05) grams of off white coloured lumpy material.

8. Purpose of reference: Analysis and Report.

9. Identification and Tests:

REPORT

The content of the envelope under reference has been analyzed by chemical, TLC and instrumental analysis. On the basis of analysis, 67.96% Diacetylmorphine (Heroin) has been found present in the content of the envelope.'

8. Perusal of the translated copy of Annexure P-2 mentions the colour of the powder to be brown (bhura). To analyse this argument, it would be better to understand colours a little bit and for that, reference has been made to two following web pages:

https://www.britannica.com/science/primary-color, [downloaded on 07 Apr 2025 at 08:40 hours at Chandigarh]

primary colour, any of a set of colours that can be used to mix a wide range of hues. There are three commonly used primary colour models: RGB (red,