Supreme Court to Examine Entitlement to Default Bail in NDPS Cases Without FSL Report in Chargesheet

The Supreme Court has decided to refer to a larger bench the question of whether an accused under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act is entitled to default bail if the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report is not included along with the chargesheet.

In a recent order, a division bench noted the divergence of views among different benches on this issue and referred to a pending case, Directorate of Enforcement vs. Manpreet Singh Talwar, which is yet to be decided by a three-judge bench. The court also tagged another case, Hanif Ansari vs. State (Govt. of NCT), along with it.

The court highlighted that while some similar cases were tagged, interim bail was not granted in all instances. Notably, interim bail was declined in cases such as Pabitra Narayan Pradhan vs. The State (NGT) of Delhi and Shankar @ Shiva Maheshwar Savai vs. The State of Gujarat.

Given the diversity of views on the grant of interim bail and the significance of the issue, the court opined that a larger bench should decide whether the absence of the FSL report in the chargesheet would entitle the accused to default bail under Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure read with Section 36A of the NDPS Act.

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