Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Nov 17: High Court has granted bail to an accused involved in drug trafficking on the ground that the contraband recovered from the possession of the accused does not fall with the category of ‘Commercial Quantity’.
Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey after testing the bail application of accused Muzamil Rafiq Ganai from the perspective of law said, it requires to be recapitulated that the rigor of Section 37 of the Act of 1985 does not apply to the instant case.
Justice Magrey further added that the case of the applicant does not fall within the parameters of the offences that are punishable with death or imprisonment of life. Therefore, court said, there appears to be no reasonable ground for declining bail to the applicant.
Court recorded that the maxim of the law of bails, which has its application to the case on hand where the quantity of narcotics recovered from the applicant/ accused falls within the scales of an intermediary one, is “bail and not jail”.
“Deprivation of liberty is tantamount to punishment. The principle that punishment begins after conviction and that every man is deemed to be innocent unless duly tried and duly found guilty, has its application to the facts of the instant case in all the fours”, Court recorded.
Court said, the bail cannot be withheld as a means of punishment as prison hell destroys the tender sentiments of a person and the applicant/ accused has been languishing in the jail for so many months by now and he has to prepare for his defence which is of an essence in a criminal trial. “The discretion has to be exercised on well based foundations of law and one cannot get swayed by sentiments. Temper and passion have no role to play in exercising the discretion for the grant of bail”, Justice Magrey added.
For all these reasons court admitted the accused to bail with a condition to furnishes a personal bond to the tune of Rs.1.00 lakh with a surety of the like amount to the satisfaction of the Superintendent of the jail wherein he is lodged at the present.
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