MUMBAI: A Bombay high court bench of Justice Bharati Dangre recently referred to a larger bench the question whether all offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act are non- bailable, irrespective of many not warranting imprisonment.
The move came in a hearing where Karishma Prakash, former manager of actor Deepika Padukone, was denied pre-arrest bail in an alleged illegal trafficking case. Senior counsel Aabad Ponda said in two earlier judgments, conflicting views were taken. In one, a bench of Justice S V Kotwal, granting bail to Rhea Chakraborty-girlfriend of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput-in a 2020 NCB case, held all NDPS offences are non-bailable.
