Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
Indu Malhotra and Ajay Rastogi

JUDGMENT

Ajay Rastogi, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. The Appellant-prosecution has challenged the discretion exercised by the learned Single Judge of the High Court of Kerala in granting post-arrest bail to the Accused Respondents without noticing the mandate of Section 37(1)(b)(ii) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (hereinafter being referred to as "NDPS Act") under the order impugned dated 10^th May, 2019 followed with 12th June, 2019 rejecting the application filed by the Appellant Under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure(hereinafter being referred to as "CrPC") for recalling the order of post-arrest bail dated 10^th May, 2019.

3. It may be noticed that Accused Respondent Shajimon is (A-5) in Crime No. 14/2018 and (A-1) in Crime No. 19/2018 and another Accused Respondent Rajesh is (A-3) in Crime No. 19/2018.

Facts of Crime No. 14/2018

4. The prosecution case is that on 25^th May, 2018 at 5.30 p.m. in the parking area of the Hotel Aquarock situated at Mannanthala, Accused A-1 to A-3 were found to be in joint possession of 10.202 kgs of hashish oil and currency notes worth Rs. 13,50,000/-. The Circle Inspector of Excise, Thiruvananthapuram arrested all of three Accused A-1 to A-3 and seized the hashish oil, money and the vehicles which were used by them for transporting oil. The allegation against the Accused Respondent (A-5) was that he entrusted hashish oil to A-1 through A-2 for sale in the International market and Crime No. 14/2018 was registered against him for the offences punishable Under Sections 20(b)(ii)(c) and Section 29 of the NDPS Act and after investigation, charge-sheet was filed on 10^th May, 2019.

5. On an application filed for post-arrest bail by Accused Respondent(A-5), learned Additional Sessions Judge while noticing the mandate of Section 37(1)(b)(i) and (ii) of the NDPS Act observed that there was a prima facie material to presume that the Accused committed the offence punishable Under Section 20(b)(ii)(c) and Section 29 of the NDPS Act and rejected the application for post-arrest bail vide order dated 21^st February, 2019 which came to be challenged at the instance of the Accused Respondent filing bail application before the High Court.

6. Learned Judge of the High Court without even noticing Section 37 of the NDPS Act and taking note of the fact that other Accused persons in Crime No. 14/2018(A-1 to A-4) since have been released on bail, granted him post-arrest bail under the order impugned dated 10^th May, 2019 which is a subject matter of appeal before us.

Facts of