Page No.# 1/3 GAHC010157322025 THE GAUHATI HIGH COURT (HIGH COURT OF ASSAM, NAGALAND, MIZORAM AND ARUNACHAL PRADESH) Case No. : I.A.(Crl.)/880/2025 HIRA KUMAR S/O - BHULU RAY R/O - JETHULI P.O. - KACHCHI DARGAH P.S. - NEW CAPITAL COMPLEX DIST - WEST AGARTALA, TRIPURA PIN - 799006 2: RATAN LASKAR S/O - LT SUSHIL LASKAR R/O - VILL - KHEJUR BAGAN P.O. KATHAL BAGAN P.S. NEW CAPITAL COMPLEX DIST - WEST AGARTALA TRIPURA PIN - 79900 VERSUS THE UNION OF INDIA REPRESENTED BY SC, NCB Advocate for the Petitioner : MD TARIKUL HUSSAIN, MR. Y S MANNAN,MR. T HUSSAIN Advocate for the Respondent : SC, NCB, BEFORE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE SANJEEV KUMAR SHARMA ORDER 26.03.2026 Heard Mr. Y.S. Mannan, learned counsel for the applicants/appellants. Also Page No.# 2/3 heard Mr. R.K.D Choudhury, learned Standing Counsel for the NCB. 2. This interlocutory application has been preferred by the applicants/appellants namely, Shri Hira Kumar and Sri Ratan Laskar, seeking suspension of the sentence of 10 years rigorous imprisonment imposed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge No.1, Kamrup(M), Guwahati, pursuant to the judgment dated 29.03.2025 and sentence order dated 01.04.2025 in NDPS Case No.68/2021 and allow the applicants/appellants to go on bail. 3. The applicants/appellants upon conviction have spent more than half of the sentence behind the bars. The connected appeal is yet to be admitted. 4. Having regard to the decision of the Hon’ble Apex Court in Bhagwan Rama Shinde Gosai and Others vs. State of Gujarat, reported in (1999) 4 SCC 421, wherein it has been held that when a convicted person is sentenced to a fixed period of sentence and then the statutory appeal is pending, suspension of sentence should be considered by the Appellate Court liberally unless there are exceptional circumstances. Further, in the case of Satender Kumar Antil vs. Central Bureau of Investigation, reported in (2022) 10 SCC 51, it has been held while interpreting Section 436 A of the Code of Criminal Procedure corresponding to Section 479 BNSS that the word “trial” mentioned in the aforesaid provision will have to be given an expanded meaning particularly when an appeal or admission is pending and in a case where an appeal is pending for a longer time, the period of incarceration in all forms will have to be reckoned, and so also for revision. 5. In the instant case, since the period of sentence is for a fixed period of 10 years and moreover the applicants/appellants have undergone more than half of Page No.# 3/3 the sentence, in view of the aforesaid statutory provision as explained by the Hon’ble Apex Court in the judgments referred to above, the prayer for suspension of sentence deserves to be allowed. 6. Accordingly, the remaining part of the sentence yet to be undergone by the applicants/appellants stands suspended. 7. The applicants/appellants named above shall be released on bail on furnishing a bail bond of Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees one lakh) each with two local sureties of like amount each to the satisfaction of the learned Trial Court. 8. I.A.(Crl.) is disposed of accordingly. JUDGE Comparing Assistant