Munmun Kaur-
Published On: December 08, 2021 at 13:30 IST
Supreme Court on Tuesday, observed that the Courts should not show any leniency in cases where the Accused is dealing in drugs and is Convicted under NDPS Act.
The case in hand was of Pakistani National Zahid, who was Arrested in 1999 and Convicted by an Amritsar Court for dealing in drugs. He was Sentenced to 12 years of Jail term. While being undertrial, he was Arrested again for dealing drugs by the Delhi police and was sentenced to 14 years of Jail term. His plea for concurrent running of sentences was rejected by both Delhi High Court and Supreme Court.
A Bench of Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna observed that “The general rule is that where there are different transactions, different crime numbers and cases have been decided by different judgments, concurrent sentences can’t be awarded under Section 427… the court has the power and discretion to issue a direction that all the subsequent sentences run concurrently with the previous sentence, however, discretion has to be exercised judiciously depending on the nature of the offence or the offences,”.
The Court while observing the deadly impact of drugs on the society, stated that “ …While awarding the sentence or punishment in case of NDPS, the interest of the society as a whole is required to be taken into consideration”