Brief Facts
- The petitioner was arrested on 07.04.2022 for offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS Act) involving recovery of 2 Kgs of heroin. The chargesheet was filed on 07.10.2024 within the stipulated time under Section 167(2) of CrPC. However, at the time of filing the chargesheet, the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report identifying the seized specimen as heroin was not available.
- The petitioner sought default bail under Section 167(2) of CrPC arguing that the chargesheet was incomplete without the FSL report. The FSL report was eventually submitted later on 05.07.2023, confirming the seized material as heroin.
- The High Court rejected the bail plea, holding that non-filing of FSL report doesn’t entitle the accused to statutory bail.
- Hence, the special leave petition was filed before the Supreme Court.
Issues
- 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?
Held
- In view of there being diversity of views of different Benches of this Court even on the question of granting interim bail, the Court opined that a larger Bench may decide the question.
- No observation was made on the merits of the case.
Relevant Page No.
- 5 and 6