30 03-03-2025 (ct. no. 29) KOLE Allowed CRM (NDPS) 160 of 2025 In re: An application for bail under Section 439 of the Code of Criminal Procedure/Section 483 of the BNSS in connection with Lalgola Police Station Case No. 451 of 2023 dated 17.10.2023 under Sections 21(C)/29 of the NDPS Act. - A n d - In the matter of : Golab Hossain .... Petitioner. Mr. Arnab Chatterjee, Ms. P. Bose, Ms. D. Biswas, Mr. A. Ghosh, … For the Petitioner. Mrs. Rituparna De Ghosh, Ms. Puja Goswami, … For the State. Order dictated by Arijit Banerjee, J.: 1. The petitioner was arrested on October 17, 2023. Charge sheet without the chemical report was filed on April 12, 2024. 180 days from the date of the petitioner’s arrest expired on April 18, 2024. He applied for statutory bail on September 6, 2024 before the learned Trial Court. Such prayer was rejected. Subsequently chemical report was filed on November 14, 2024. 2. The petitioner had approached this Court praying for bail by filing CRM (NDPS) 1594 of 2024. By an order dated November 14, 2024, a Coordinate Bench had dismissed that application on merits. 3. Learned State Advocate says that the issue of default bail was not raised before the Coordinate Bench and therefore, the petitioner should not be allowed to agitate such point now. 4. We are, however, of the view that since, going by the ratio of the decision in the case of Idul Mia in CRM (NDPS) 1359 of 2024, reported in 2024 SCC Online Cal 9109, the petitioner was 2 entitled to default bail when he had approached the learned Trial Court, such right cannot evaporate. As was observed by the Hon’ble Apex Court in the case of Rakesh Kumar Paul-vs.-State of Assam, reported in (2017) 15 SCC 67, it was the duty of the Court concerned to intimate the petitioner that he is entitled to statutory bail. Technicalities should not stand in the way of substantive justice being done. 5. It is not in dispute that in the present case, chemical report was still not on record when the petitioner approached the learned Trial Court for bail after expiry of 180 days from the date of his arrest. Therefore, the learned Trial Court ought to have granted his prayer. 6. Hence, we are inclined to enlarge the petitioner on bail. 7. Accordingly, we direct that the petitioner, namely, Golab Hossain, shall be released on bail upon furnishing a bond of Rs. 25,000/-, with two sureties of like amount each, one of whom must be local, to the satisfaction of the Learned Special Judge under the NDPS Act, Berhampore, Murshidabad subject to condition that he shall appear before the trial court on every date of hearing until further orders and shall not intimidate witnesses or tamper with evidence in any manner whatsoever and on further condition that the petitioner while on bail shall not leave the jurisdiction of the Lalgola Police Station and shall meet the I.C. of the concerned police station once every week until further orders. 8. In the event the petitioner fails to adhere to any of the conditions stipulated above without justifiable cause, the trial court shall be at liberty to cancel the petitioner’s bail in accordance with law without further reference to this court. 9. The application for bail is, accordingly, allowed. 3 10. All parties shall act in terms of server copy of the order downloaded from the official website of this Court. ( Prasenjit Biswas, J. ) ( Arijit Banerjee, J. )