First Offenders, Poor Families: Supreme Court Cuts NDPS Sentence to Minimum and Default Term to Six Months

On 04.09.2000 the Gujarat police arrested the appellants at Kalupur Railway Station, Ahmedabad, carrying 500 grams of brown sugar on a train from Delhi (para 4). Treating it as a commercial quantity, the Additional Sessions Judge convicted them under Sections 8(c), 21 and 29 of the NDPS Act and sentenced them to 15 years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1.5 lakh each, with three years more in default (para 4). The High Court dismissed their appeals on 08.07.2002 (paras 3-4). Before the Supreme Court they did not seriously contest the conviction but sought a lower sentence and default term (para 6).

The conviction was confirmed, as it was not seriously challenged (para 7). For the offences charged the minimum sentence is 10 years, extendable to 20 (para 8). Following Balwinder Singh, where a first-time offender's sentence was cut to the minimum, and noting that the appellants had no antecedents and had served nearly 12 years, the Court reduced their sentence to 10 years (paras 8-9). Relying on Shantilal, it held that imprisonment in default of fine is not a sentence but a penalty for non-payment, which a person can avoid by paying; before ordering it, the court must consider the nature of the offence, the offender's position and means, and should not add an excessive fine to a substantial term (paras 11-12). Though the NDPS Act prescribes minimum fines, the appellants were poor first offenders with families, and three more years for inability to pay would seriously prejudice them and their innocent families (paras 13-14).