Madras High Court Grants Anticipatory Bail To Man Charged Under NDPS Act
Upasana Sajeev
10 Dec 2025 10:02 AM IST
The Madras High Court recently granted anticipatory bail to a man booked under the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The Supreme Court had recently orally observation that "Anticipatory bail is never granted in NDPS case". The Top Court had made the observation while refusing to interfere with Punjab and Haryana High Court's denial of anticipatory bail to an accused booked under the Act.
In the present case however, Justice K Rajasekar noted that the conditions under Section 37 of the Act were satisfied for the purpose of granting anticipatory bail and ordered accordingly.
The man was booked under Sections 8(c), 22(c), 25, 29(1) of the NDPS Act.
The prosecution's case was that based on secret information, the Inspector of Police recovered total 1500 grams of methamphetamine from some accused persons. The Petitioner here was implicated based on confessional statement of one of the accused. It was alleged that the petitioner's premises were being used for exporting the contraband produced by other accused persons.
The petitioner argued that there was no material or averment to show that the contraband seized belonged to the petitioner or was handed over to him for trafficking. He also submitted that other similarly placed persons were granted bail by the High Court. It was also submitted that in the present case, the investigation was concluded, the final report was filed and taken on file, and a non-bailable warrant had been issued against him. The petitioner submitted that he was ready to appear before the court and thus sought for anticipatory bail.
The court noted that the contraband seized in the case were not possessed, transported or sold by the petitioner. It also noted that the petitioner was arrayed as an accused due to some of his past conduct and was in no way linked to the present contraband that was seized by the prosecution.
Thus noting that the conditions under Section 37 were fully satisfied, the court was inclined to grant anticipatory bail with conditions.
Counsel for Petitioner: Mr. Kasirajan S
Counsel for Respondents: M/s. J. R. Archana Government Advocate (Crl.Side)
Case Title: A Affice Khan v. The State
Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Mad) 476
Case No: CRL OP No. 31382 of 2025