TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2001 (2) TMI 1021
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.... batch of Narcotic Control Bureau officers searched the premises of respondent No.1, Shambhu Sonkar, at G.T. Road, P.S. Golabari, District Howrah on 22.11.1999 and recovered 18.7 Kgs. of Ganja and a sum of Rs. 4,370/- . On the same date a confessional statement of the respondent was also recorded. The respondent filed a bail application before the Additional District Judge, Howrah, which was rejected by order dated 2nd February, 2000. Thereafter, the respondent approached the High Court of Calcutta and the High Court by its order dated 7th March, 2000 allowed the said bail application by holding that restrictions imposed by Section 37 of the N.D.P.S. Act, 1985 (hereinafter referred to as NDPS Act) would not be applicable as the maximum impr....
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....ble to fine which shall not be less than one lakh rupees and which may extend to two lakh rupees; Provided that the court may, for reasons to be recorded in the judgment, impose a fine exceeding two lakh rupees. 37. Offences to be cognizable and non-bailable.(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974),-- (a) every offence punishable under this Act shall be cognizable; (b) no person accused of an offence punishable for a term of imprisonment of five years or more under this Act shall be released on bail or on his own bond unless (i) the Public Prosecutor has been given an opportunity to oppose the application for such release, and (ii) where the Public Prosecutor opposes the ap....
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....ation of clause (b) would be that offence is punishable for a term of imprisonment of 5 years or more. Plain reading of the above said clause makes it clear that in case where the person is accused of an offence punishable for a terms of imprisonment of 5 years then he cannot be released unless the conditions mentioned therein are satisfied. In case of offence punishable under Section 20 (b) (i), maximum punishment is for a term of imprisonment of 5 years and a fine which may extend to Rs. 50,000/-. There is no justifiable reason to hold that maximum term of imprisonment is to be excluded for the purpose of interpretation and Section 37 would not cover in its fold offence punishable under Section 20(b)(i). Further, even if we consider th....
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.... the level of punishment, on technical grounds, drug offenders were being released on bail. In the light of certain difficulties faced in the enforcement of the NDPS Act, 1985 the need to amend the law to further strengthen it, has been felt. Further, in Maktool Singh v. State of Punjab [(1999) 3 SCC 321] this Court while interpreting Section 32A which provides that no sentence awarded under the Act other than Section 27 shall be suspended or remitted or commuted, considered Section 37 along with the scheme of the Act and held thus:- The only offences exempted from the purview of the aforesaid rigours on the bail provisions are those under Sections 26 and 27 of the Act. The former is punishable up to a maximum imprisonment for three y....