112-A IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of Decision: 22.05.2026 KABAL SINGH ... PETITIONER VERSUS STATE OF PUNJAB ...RESPONDENT CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JASJIT SINGH BEDI Present: Mr. Dhananjai Rana, Advocate for the petitioner.

Mr. T.P. Singh, Sr. DAG, Haryana.

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JASJIT SINGH BEDI, J.

The prayer in the present petition under Section 483 BNSS is for the grant of regular bail in case bearing FIR No.57 dated 26.04.2025 registered under Sections 15, 29, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act at Police Station Sadar Samana, District Patiala.

2. The brief facts of the case are that Kabal Singh and Satnam Singh alias Attu were apprehended with 20 Kgs of poppy husk. Pursuant to their respective disclosure statements, the recovery of 18 Kgs and 15 Kgs of poppy husk came to be effected from them, thus making a total recovery of

53 kgs of poppy husk.

3. The learned counsel for the petitioner contends that the petitioner has been falsely implicated in the present case. The petitioner has been in custody since 26.04.2025 and only 01 of the 35 prosecution witnesses has been examined so far. Therefore, the trial of the present case was not likely to be concluded anytime soon. Even otherwise, as the recovery from the petitioner was marginally above the commercial quantity of 50 kgs of poppy husk, the petitioner was entitled to the grant of bail.

4. On the other hand, the learned State counsel contends that the commercial quantity of contraband has been recovered from the petitioner and his co-accused. Therefore, he was not entitled to the concession of bail in view of the bar contained under Section 37 of the NDPS Act. He, however, concedes that the petitioner is a first time offender, in custody since 26.04.2025 and only 01 of the 35 prosecution witnesses has been examined so far.

5. I have heard the learned counsel for the parties.

6. In the cases of ‘Sukhchain Singh @ Manga Versus State of Punjab, CRM-M-7857-2022 decided on 04.04.2022, Pardeep Singh versus State of Punjab, CRM-M-46244-2022 decided on 19.01.2023, Hari Yadav @ Haiya versus State of Punjab (CRM-M-37645-2021)’ decided on 11.11.2022, ‘Jang Kanwar Versus State of Punjab (CRM-M-53415-2021)’ decided on 19.01.2022, ‘Shankar Prashad Chanau Versus The State of Punjab, CRM-M-24090-2020, decided on 27.08.2020, Gurpreet Kumar Versus State of Punjab, CRM-M-17021-2021, decided on 31.08.2021, Salim Versus State of Haryana, CRM-M-42436-2020, decided on 24.02.2021 Gagandeep Versus State of Punjab, CRM-M-3055-2021, decided on 27.01.2021, Gurpreet Singh @ Gopi Versus State of Punjab, CRM-M- 41039-2019, decided on 26.02.2020, Dalbara Singh Versus State of Punjab, CRM-M-47880-2022 decided on 16.01.2023’, and Vivek Watts versus State of Punjab, CRM-M-13791-2022 decided on 15.02.2023, where the recovery from the accused was marginally above the commercial quantity for the respective contraband in each case, the Court granted bail to the accused therein.

7. In the present case, the alleged recovery from the petitioner along with his co-accused is of 53 Kgs of poppy husk, which is marginally above the commercial quantity of 50 Kgs. In this situation, the provisions of Section 37 of the NDPS Act can be relaxed to an extent and the case of the petitioner can be considered for the grant of bail, moreso, when he is in custody since 26.04.2025 and only 01 of the 35 prosecution witnesses has been examined so far.

8. Thus, without commenting upon the merits of the case, the present petition is allowed and the petitioner, namely, Kabal Singh son of Gurlal Singh is ordered to be released on bail to the satisfaction of the Trial Court/Duty Magistrate concerned.

9. The petitioner shall appear on the first Monday of every month before the police station concerned till the conclusion of the trial and furnish an affidavit each time that he is not involved in any other case other than the present case.

10. In addition, the petitioner (or someone on his behalf) shall prepare an FDR in the sum of Rs.1,00,000/-