After a ruling by the Bombay High Court on October 7, granted bail to actor Rhea Chakraborty in the case registered against her by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act), the NCB appealed against it. Hearing the petition on Thursday (18 March), the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal only if the Centre challenges the bail order next week, as per a report by Bar and Bench.
According to the LiveLaw report, the Supreme Court Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said, “I know lordships won’t interfere in grant of bail. Our Concern is (Bombay High) Court has made observations on NDPS act.”
He claimed that these interpretations would render the act ‘meaningless’ and make it very difficult for the agency to prosecute and ensure conviction. Countering his statement, CJI Bobde clarified that they ‘hadn’t challenged’ the bail, saying, “You cannot challenge the bail order observations without challenging the bail order itself.”
SG Mehta then said that he will ‘amend it and change the prayer’ and the Court was adjourned at his request. The hearing will take place next week.
The case by the NCB was filed against Rhea, brother Showik Chakraborty, Abdel Basit Parihar, Samuel Miranda and Dipesh Sawant in a drug-related case that surfaced following the death of Sushant Singh Rajput. After a Special NDPS court denied bail to Rhea & others, the Bombay High Court had ruled that, “She(Rhea) is not part of drug dealers. She has not forwarded the drugs allegedly procured by her to somebody else to earn monetary or other benefits.”
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