“Poor Illiterate Lady”, “Senior Citizen”,”Rural Background”: Supreme Court Reduces Sentence Awarded To An NDPS Convict
Case: Budhiyarin Bai vs State of Chhattisgarh
Coram: Justices Ajay Rastogi and CT Ravikumar
Case No.: CrA 1218 OF 2022
Court Observation: “It may be noticed that the minimum sentence prescribed under the NDPS Act for such offence under Section 20(b)(ii)(C) is 10 years which may extend to 20 years with a fine of Rs. 1 lakh which may extend to Rs. 2 lakhs. While imposing higher than the minimum punishment, such of the factors which are to be taken into consideration have been provided under Section 32B of the NDPS Act but after we have gone through the record with the assistance of the counsel for the parties, we are of the view that the learned trial Judge as well as the High Court have not taken into consideration the factors to be kept in mind for imposing higher than the minimum sentence provided under Section 32B of the NDPS Act”
“We are of the considered view that the offences under the NDPS Act are very serious in nature and against the society at large and no discretion is to be exercised in favour of such accused who are indulged in such offences under the Act. It is a menace to the society, no leniency should be shown to the accused persons who are found guilty under the NDPS Act. But while upholding the same, this Court cannot be oblivious of the other facts and circumstances as projected in the present case that the old illiterate lady from rural background, who was senior citizen at the time of alleged incident, was residing in that house along with her husband and two grown up children who may be into illegal trade but that the prosecution failed to examine and taking note of the procedural compliance as contemplated under Sections 42, 50 and 55 of the NDPS Act, held the appellant guilty for the reason that she was residing in that house but at the same time, this fact was completely ignored that the other co-accused were also residing in the same house and what was their trade, and who were those persons who were involved into the illegal trade providing supplies of psychotropic substances, prosecution has never cared to examine…
..We are not going to examine the question any further but taking in totality of the matter and the background facts which have come on record that she was an illiterate senior citizen on the date of the incident, i.e., 15th January 2011, having no criminal record, and was from the rural background, completely unknown to the law and unaware of what was happening surrounding her, all these incidental facts have not been considered by the learned trial Court while awarding sentence to the appellant.”
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Keywords
NDPS Convict, Poor Illiterate Lady NDPS Convict
