This Criminal Revision was dismissed as the prayer for vehicle release no longer survives because the vehicle is subject to pre-trial disposal proceedings under Section 52-A of the NDPS Act as clarified by the Division Bench judgment.
CRLREV stands disposed of; liberty given to prosecution to seek disposal of conveyance under Section 52-A NDPS Act.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK
CRLREV No.458 of 2020
Ruksana Khatun
…. Petitioner
-versus-
Order No.
State of Odisha
…. Opposite Party
CORAM: JUSTICE S.PUJAHARI ORDER 04.02.2022
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457 Cr.P.C for release of Yamaha Fascino bearing registration number OD-11P-0803.
“24. Before concluding, the Court would like to note that there have been decisions of the learned Single Judges of this Court on the subject of release of vehicles seized after being found carrying the narcotic drugs. In Jitendra Kumar Digal v. State of Odisha by judgment dated 22nd October 2020 in Criminal Revision No. 281 of 2020, it was held that when the accused is the owner of the seized vehicle carrying the narcotic goods, the vehicle should not be released in his favour.
It is clarified that the directions issued in the present judgment would prevail hereafter.
Concluding directions
(i) All pending applications shown in Annexure-3 to the petition shall be taken up forthwith by a First Class Magistrate specifically nominated in each of the respective districts by the District and Sessions Judge, who will deal with such applications exclusively on all working Saturdays of the month till the entire backlog is cleared. If the number of such pending cases is large in a particular district, the concerned District and Sessions Judge will nominate more than one Magistrate for that purpose who will take up the applications likewise.
(ii) All such applications will be taken up chronologically with the oldest applications being listed first. Of course, wherever the urgent directions are required because of the possibility of the seized substances deteriorating, such applications can be
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taken up out of turn for reasons to be recorded in writing by the concerned Magistrate.
(iii) There shall be strict compliance with the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court of India in Mohanlal (supra). All the applications under Section 52-A (2) to (4) NDPS Act pending before the learned Magistrates in the different judgeships in Odisha should be disposed of within a period of three months from today i.e. in any event on or before 1st May, 2022and all fresh applications filed hereafter will be endeavoured to be disposed of within a period of ten days from the date of their filing.
(iv) The State Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) is requested to cooperate with the concerned Magistrates' Courts for the purposes of the implementation of the above directions in a time bound manner and correspondingly submit the test result reports to the concerned Courts within a period of two weeks of the receipt of the samples sent hereafter. As regards pending samples, the State FSL will clear the backlog and send their reports to the concerned Courts within a period of two months from today and in any event not later than 1st April, 2022.
(v) On receipt of the test report, the Magistrate shall complete the remaining part of the exercise of taking photographs/videograph (of not more than 1 minute duration)that reveal the dimensions of the seized conveyance from all angles in digital format and encrypting them with the hash value in the presence of counsel for the parties within ten days from the date of receipt of the test report. In this regard, the Registry of the High Court will communicate to each District Judge, the detailed Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) and this part of the direction will take effect immediately after the receipt of the SoP by the District Judge. The Registry of the High Court is requested to circulate to all the District Judges, the detailed SoP to be followed by each of the Magistrates.
(vi) A monthly statement on the disposal of all such applications will be submitted to the concerned District Judge by the Magistrates and in turn such monthly statement should be forwarded simultaneously to the corresponding HLDDC and the Committee constituted by the Chief Justice of the High Court of Odisha on the administrative side. Both the HLDDC
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as well as the High Court Committee will meet with fair regularity to monitor implementation of these directionson the administrative side and call for an explanation from the concerned Magistrate if there is an inordinate delay in disposal of the application.”
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PKS/MRS
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2 issues framed by the court
Whether the prayer for release of the seized vehicle filed under Section 457 Cr.P.C survives the enactment of Section 52-A of the NDPS Act.
Whether the vehicle seized carrying narcotic goods can be released to the owner before pre-trial disposal under Section 52-A.
Colour shows how this judgement treated each authority
State of Odisha vrs. Registrar General, Orissa High Court, CuttackApplied¶12
State of Odisha vrs. Registrar General, Orissa High Court, Cuttack, Writ Petition (Civil) No.32580 of 2021
Jitendra Kumar Digal v. State of OdishaExplained¶18
Jitendra Kumar Digal v. State of Odisha, Criminal Revision No. 281 of 2020, judgment dated 22nd October 2020
2 provisions across 2 enactments
Ruksana Khatun
State of Odisha
S. Pujahari
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
