O R D E R

1. Heard.

2. Leave granted.

3. The appellants herein are both medical professionals concerned with the operation of Corporate Hospital at Batala Road, Amritsar.

4. An order for Tramadol tablets was placed with the manufacturer, M/s. Ballista Pharmaceuticals, under a written letter dated 19th April, 2025 issued under the signatures of the appellant, Dr. Jatinder Malhotra, who was managing the affairs of the NEETU KHAJURIA D 16 a : t 0 e 4 : : 2 1 0 1 2 I 6 S . T 04.02 within the Corporate Hospital, Amritsar).

Reason:

5. It is the case of the appellants that, owing to a supply-side error, M/s. Ballista Pharmaceuticals inadvertently shipped a consignment of 2000 Tramadol tablets to the hospital instead of the intended quantity of 200 tablets for which the order was placed. The consignment was received on 21st April, 2025, and, upon noticing the excess quantity, the same was neither opened nor put to use. The entire consignment continued to remain in a sealed box.

6. The appellants further claim that a letter dated 27th April, 2025 was issued by the hospital to M/s. Ballista Pharmaceuticals requesting for return of the excess 1800 tablets. As per the appellants, the Tramadol tablets had been ordered for providing treatment to the patients admitted in the hospital. However, before the excess tablets could be returned, the Officers of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Amritsar Zonal Unit conducted search and seizure on 1st May, 2025 in the premises of M/s. Ballista Pharmaceuticals and recovered 31,900 tablets of Tramadol.

7. Pursuant to the said recovery, a crime case bearing NCB Crime No.14/2025 dated 1st May, 2025 was registered against one Amit Bhandari, the proprietor of M/s. Ballista Pharmaceuticals. As a follow up, the NCB conducted a raid at the Corporate Medicos operating inside the Corporate Hospital, Amritsar and recovered the said consignment of 2000 Tramadol tablets in a sealed condition.

8. The appellant-Dr. Rajinder Rajan, who is a senior orthopaedic surgeon and owner of the hospital, and the appellant-Dr. Jatinder Malhotra being the proprietor of the pharmacy (Corporate Medicos) were initially summoned under Section 67 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 19851 and after recording their statements, both were arrested and remanded to judicial custody on

3rd May, 2025.

9. The appellants applied for bail before the Punjab and Haryana High Court2. Their applications for regular bail stand rejected by the learned Single Judge of the High Court by two separate orders dated 13th November, 2025 passed in CRM-M-33675-2025 and CRM-M-33573-2025.

1 Hereinafter being referred to as “NDPS Act, 1985”.

2 Hereinafter being referred to as “High Court”.

10. A specific plea was taken on behalf of the appellants in the applications for bail filed under Section 483 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 that they were not supplied with the ‘grounds of arrest’ before taking them into custody in the present case.

11. The bail applications of the appellants having been rejected by the High Court, the appellants are before us by way of these appeals with special leave. 12. Shri S. Nagamuthu and Shri P.V. Dinesh, learned senior counsel appearing for the appellants, placed reliance on the judgment of this Hon’ble Court in Mihir Rajesh Shah v. State of Maharashtra & Another, (2026) 1 SCC 500. , and urged that failure to furnish the ‘grounds of arrest’ to an accused in writing amounts to violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 21 and 22 of the Constitution of India. It was submitted that where the arrested person has not been informed of the grounds of arrest, the inevitable consequence would be that the arrest is illegal and such person is entitled to be released from custody.

13. In particular, learned senior counsel relied upon the following conclusions recorded in Mihir Rajesh Shah (supra):-

“66.