Akidul Islam v. State Of Assam Rep. By The Public Prosecutor

Manish Choudhury, J.:— The Court proceedings have been conducted through remote video conferencing mode due to the prevailing situation in the State due to Covid-19 pandemic.

2. Heard Mr. M. Khan, learned counsel for the accused-petitioner and Mr. R.J. Baruah, learned Additional Public Prosecutor for the respondent State of Assam.

3. By this application under Section 439, Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC), the accused-petitioner viz. Akidul Islam has prayed for his release on bail as he is in custody in connection with Mankachar Police Station Case No. 827/2020, registered under Section 22(C) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (‘the NDPS Act’, for short).

4. Mr. Khan, learned counsel for the accused-petitioner has submitted that the accused-petitioner after arrest, was remanded to custody on 05.12.2020 and hence, the mandatory period of 180 days prescribed for filing of charge sheet/final report under Section 167(2), CrPC was completed on 03.06.2021. As such, the right to default bail has accrued to the accused-petitioner immediately after expiry of 180 days.

5. Mr. Baruah, learned Additional Public Prosecutor has submitted that he has no instruction as to whether any report has been submitted by the Public Prosecutor before the learned Special Court seeking extension of the period up to 1 (one) year to complete the investigation in terms of the proviso to subsection (4) of Section 36A of the NDPS Act and whether such period to complete the investigation has been extended up to 1 (one) year by the learned Special Court.

6. Taking note of the above submission of the learned Additional Public Prosecutor, Mr. Khan has submitted that the accused-petitioner will exercise his right to default bail under the proviso to Section 167(2), CrPC by approaching the learned Special Court. In such view of the matter, he has submitted that this application be closed with the observation that in the event the accused-petitioner approaches the learned Special Court to exercise his right to default bail under the proviso to Section 167(2), CrPC, the same shall be considered immediately in accordance with law.

7. In view of the above submission of the learned counsel for the accused-petitioner, this application is closed, reserving the liberty to the accused-petitioner to approach the learned jurisdictional Special Court by filing appropriate application to exercise his right to default bail on the ground that no charge sheet/final report has been submitted within a period of 180 days. It is expected that in the event of filing such an application, learned jurisdictional Special Court will consider the same in accordance with law.