Granting anticipatory bail to repeat offenders inappropriate, says Punjab and Haryana High Court

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, July 19

Granting anticipatory bail to habitual offenders is highly inappropriate as it undermines efforts to combat the drug menace, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled. The Bench also ruled that allowing repeat offenders to evade accountability would send a detrimental message.

Justice Manjari Nehru Kaul also made it clear that that such leniency would weaken the legal system’s attempts and resolve to tackle the pervasive issue of drug-related crimes.

The judgment, indicating that lenient treatment of habitual offenders can embolden others and perpetuate the cycle of criminal activity, is significant as it aims to reinforce the seriousness of drug offenses and the need for stringent measures against repeat offenders. The petitioner in the case was seeking the concession of anticipatory bail in an FIR registered on March 31 under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act registered at Sadar police station in Fatehabad district’s Ratia.

The petitioner’s stand in the matter was that he had joined investigation. As such, an earlier order granting anticipatory bail to him was required to be confirmed. The state counsel, on the other hand, brought to the court’s notice during the course of hearing that the petitioner was a man of criminal antecedents as he was involved in the three cases. He stood convicted in one of the matters registered under the NDPS Act.

The counsel further said the petitioner was a habitual offender, repeatedly participating in drug trafficking. The crime in question was committed when he was on bail in another drug cases. As such, it was a case of misuse of bail as well. “Given the petitioner’s criminal antecedents and the grave nature of the offences under the NDPS Act, granting the extraordinary concession of anticipatory bail would be highly inappropriate.

“It would undermine efforts to combat the drug menace and imply that habitual offenders like the petitioner, can evade accountability. Therefore his prayer for being enlarged on anticipatory bail deserves to be declined,” Justice Kaul said.