The Supreme Court has referred for the larger bench's consideration the question as to whether an NDPS accused is entitled to default bail if the FSL Report isn't tagged along the Chargesheet.
A division bench of Justice Anirudhha Bose and Justice PV Sanjay Kumar noted that although different benches have produced a variety of views in this regard, none has yet determined as to whether failure on the part of the prosecution to include the FSL report along with the chargesheet concerning offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 would automatically entitle the accused to default bail or not.
The Court mentioned that the lead matter in this regard is the Directorate of Enforcement Vs. Manpreet Singh Talwar which is still pending before a three-Judge Bench and tagged case of Mohd. Arbaz (supra) along with the present matter (Hanif Ansari vs.State (Govt. of NCT)) with it.
It pointed out that there are other orders also passed by the Top Court tagging, where similar questions of law are involved but interim bail has not been granted in every tagged petition.
It has been declined in the cases of Pabitra Narayan Pradhan -vs- The State (NGT) of Delhi and Shankar @ Shiva Maheshwar Savai -vs- The State of Gujarat.
"In view of there being diversity of views of different Benches of this Court even on the question of granting interim bail, we are of the opinion that a larger Bench may decide the question as to whether failure on the part of the prosecution to include the FSL report pertaining to the seized contraband article(s) along with the chargesheet, within the time specified in Section 167(2) of the Code read with Section 36A of the NDPS Act, would entitle the accused to default bail or not", the court said in the order
Read Order @LatestLaws.com:
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