Default bail under CrPC lapses once complaint is filed and cognizance is taken, even if investigation continues.

The right to default bail under Section 167(2) CrPC ceases once the final report or complaint is filed and the court takes cognizance. Here, the Special Court had already received the complaint under the NDPS Act, taken cognizance, and issued process, so the request for default bail could not survive. The Court also held that any plea of continuing investigation did not, in this proceeding, unsettle the complaint or cognizance order, especially when those orders were not separately challenged. Accordingly, default bail was not maintainable and was rejected.

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Issues: Whether an application for default bail under Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 survives after the Special Court has taken cognizance on the complaint filed under Section 36A of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.

Analysis: The petition was considered only as one for default bail. The complaint had already been filed, cognizance had been taken, and process had been issued. The Court held that once a challan or complaint in the nature of a final report is filed and the court has taken cognizance, the right under Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 ceases to be available. Any plea that investigation is still pending could not, in this proceeding, invalidate the complaint or the cognizance order, particularly when no separate challenge was made to those orders. The Court relied on the settled principle that the indefeasible right to default bail is enforceable only until filing of the challan or complaint leading to cognizance, and not thereafter.

Conclusion: The request for default bail was not maintainable after cognizance had been taken and was rejected.

Ratio Decidendi: The right to default bail under Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 is extinguished once the final report or complaint is filed and cognizance is taken; it does not survive for consideration thereafter merely because further investigation may continue.

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