The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to intervene
with an order directing the Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) to pay ?1 lakh cost
in a case, but reduced it to ?50,000.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and K Vinod
Chandran passed the order on Centre's plea challenging the Calcutta High
Court's June 16, 2024 order.
The high court imposed the cost on the NCB over the
delay in appealing against an acquittal in a case.
The amount was directed to be paid to West Bengal
State Legal Services Authority, Kolkata, within a week.
The NCB was directed to recover the cost from its
personnel involved in the process of drafting and filing the government appeal.
The apex court, however, ordered the cost to be
deposited by the government and not the officers.
"One thing is clear. There must be either the
fault of your lawyer or your officer. It has to be either one of them,"
the bench told the Centre's counsel.
The top court continued, "We are not inclined
to interfere with the impugned judgement. However, the compliance is to be made
not by the officer in view of the specific statement made by the Additional
Solicitor General (Centre's counsel) but by the petitioner." The law
officer pointed out that in several cases, appeals were filed with delay and it
was "disturbing".
He said some observations from the apex court on the
issue would be helpful.
"Please understand your position as a lawyer.
If they don't come to you, you should know what to do. You don't ask the
Supreme Court to issue directions to validate your orders," the bench
observed.
The NCB's appeal was against the acquittal verdict
of a special NDPS court in Barasat.
The high court order observed that the NCB was
required to apply for a leave to appeal under Section 378(3) of the Code of
Criminal Procedure.
"Narcotic Control Bureau did not do so.
Narcotic Control Bureau proceeded to file a government appeal without applying
for and obtaining an order under Section 378(3) of the Code of Criminal
Procedure corresponding to Section 419(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha
Sanhita, 2023," it said.
The high court said it had pointed it out on May 19
and then in June with the NCB counsel being told that appropriate leave under
the provisions was not obtained to file a government appeal.
On June 16, however, the NCB's counsel sought to
withdraw the appeal along with connected applications.
"In view of the conduct of Narcotic Control
Bureau, as noted above, granting unconditional leave to withdraw, as prayed
for, will not suffice interest of justice. Narcotic Control Bureau must be put
on terms," the high court said as it saddled the NCB with ?1 lakh.