The Punjab and Haryana High Court refused anticipatory bail under Section 482 BNSS to a man accused by the Narcotics Control Bureau of recruiting couriers for an international cartel bringing hydroponic ganja from Thailand, after 1.064 kg was seized from a co-accused at Amritsar airport (paras 1-2, 9). Although he was not caught with any drug, it held that a Section 29 conspiracy needs no physical possession and that custodial interrogation was needed to trace the source of supply (paras 6, 9).
Bench of Justices Anoop Chitkara and Sukhvinder Kaur holds that confiscated vehicles in NDPS cases need not rot in police compounds; relies on Bishwajit Dey and Denash to construct a detailed procedure for interim release.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court held that the doctrine of relation back applies to the result of an improvement examination and that, once such a result is announced, it must be followed through to its logical conclusion (paras 4-5). It directed the respondents to consider and appoint a candidate for Lecturer (English) subject to her merit, treating her M.A. as awarded in 2001 and counting her experience as an English Teacher since 15.07.2002, with notional benefits only (para 6).
The Punjab and Haryana High Court granted regular bail to an accused in a heroin case under the NDPS Act, judging him by the 200 g recovered on his own disclosure, not the 1 kg 200 g total the Additional Sessions Judge reached by adding a co-accused's separate 1 kg recovery (paras 7-8, 15). After recalling its earlier order in Sukhdev Singh on clubbing, the Court held Section 37 inapplicable to that non-commercial quantity and noted custody since 03.09.2022 (paras 13, 15-16).