{"id":9139,"date":"2026-07-21T12:47:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T12:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/?p=9139"},"modified":"2026-07-21T12:47:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T12:47:26","slug":"rajasthan-hc-tightens-ndps-bail-norms-says-procedural-delays-alone-cant-secure-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/rajasthan-hc-tightens-ndps-bail-norms-says-procedural-delays-alone-cant-secure-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Rajasthan HC Tightens NDPS Bail Norms, Says Procedural Delays Alone Can&#8217;t Secure Release"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Jodhpur<\/strong><em>:<\/em> In two significant rulings, the Rajasthan High Court has reiterated that procedural delays in NDPS investigations, such as preparing the seizure inventory or sending samples to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), are not by themselves sufficient grounds to grant bail in cases involving commercial quantities of narcotics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Justice Sandeep Shah held that recoveries made during routine police checking or patrolling are <em>&#8220;chance recoveries&#8221;<\/em> governed by Section 43 of the NDPS Act, making the safeguards under Sections 41 and 42 inapplicable. The Court also clarified that <em>Section 50 does not apply<\/em> where contraband is recovered from a vehicle rather than from the personal search of an accused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In one case, the Court refused bail to two accused after police allegedly recovered <em>125.700 kg of poppy husk<\/em> from a car intercepted during a routine highway nakabandi. In another, bail was denied to a truck driver from whose vehicle police allegedly recovered <em>100.245 kg of poppy husk and 625 grams of opium<\/em> concealed inside modified tubeless tyres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rejecting the accused&#8217;s pleas based on delays in inventory certification, FSL sampling, absence of independent witnesses, prolonged custody, and parity with co-accused, the High Court held that such procedural lapses do not weaken the prosecution&#8217;s case unless they create serious doubt about the recovery or cause prejudice to the accused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Court further observed that the applicants were allegedly found in <em>conscious possession of commercial quantities<\/em> of narcotic substances and had failed to satisfy the stringent *twin conditions under Section 37 of the NDPS Act, which govern the grant of bail. While dismissing the bail applications, the High Court directed the trial courts to <em>expedite the trials<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jodhpur: In two significant rulings, the Rajasthan High Court has reiterated that procedural delays in NDPS investigations, such as preparing the seizure inventory or sending samples to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), are not by themselves sufficient grounds to grant bail in cases involving commercial quantities of narcotics. Justice Sandeep Shah held that recoveries made &#8230; <a title=\"Rajasthan HC Tightens NDPS Bail Norms, Says Procedural Delays Alone Can&#8217;t Secure Release\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/rajasthan-hc-tightens-ndps-bail-norms-says-procedural-delays-alone-cant-secure-release\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Rajasthan HC Tightens NDPS Bail Norms, Says Procedural Delays Alone Can&#8217;t Secure Release\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wppp_is_locked":false,"_wppp_selected_plans":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,29],"tags":[670,1533,46,970,1538,1537,1531,512,675,1534,1532,43,150,520,1535,1536],"class_list":["post-9139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rajasthan-high-court","category-top-stories","tag-bail-rejected","tag-commercial-quantity","tag-criminal-law","tag-forensic-science-laboratory","tag-fsl","tag-justice-sandeep-shah","tag-narcotics","tag-ndps-act","tag-ndps-bail","tag-opium","tag-poppy-husk","tag-rajasthan-high-court","tag-rajasthan-legal-news","tag-section-37-ndps-act","tag-section-43-ndps-act","tag-section-50-ndps-act"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9141,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9139\/revisions\/9141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}