JnK HC grants bail in NDPS case for medical emergency
Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has granted bail to a petitioner, observing that it is essential for an elder male member of a family to be present when attending to an ailing daughter who requires surgery or hospitalisation.
The petitioner was arrested under sections 8/15 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985. The petitioner came to apply for a grant of bail on the contingency of the ailment of his school-going minor daughter for the purpose of getting her medically examined, which required ENT surgery.
The court of Principal Sessions Judge, Kulgam was granted a short-term bail when the petitioner came to be enlarged on bail for a period up-till 15th of April, 2025 from the date of passing of order dated 29.03.2025 with a condition for the petitioner to surrender before the Superintendent District Jail, Kuthua on 15.04.2025 before 4.00 P.M. On the basis of the short-term bail so granted, the petitioner was able to get her school-going minor daughter medically examined in Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, Srinagar, as an OPD patient.
The petitioner’s daughter has been diagnosed with an ailment known as Submucosal Nasal Twang. As per the OPD prescription, a date for surgery of the petitioner’s daughter was given for the 23rd of April, 2025. But as his previous bail failed on 15th April, he rushed to the court with another bail application. However, the Court of Principal Sessions Judge, Kulgam, refused to extend the bail. The petitioner then approached this Court with a bail petition seeking bail relatable to the medical treatment of his daughter.
After considering the submission the court observed, “ This bail petition can be disposed of at this stage as the reasoning given by the learned Principal Sessions Judge, Kulgam may have some factual basis to be cited so but nevertheless given the fact that for her minor daughter the petitioner is the only guardian who is supposed to attend her ailment, as such, the Principal Sessions Judge, Kulgam ought to have continued with the judicial trust in the petitioner with respect to the contingency of attending upon her daughter advised medical surgery for 23rd of April, 2025.”
The court also considered that it may be the petitioner’s counsel who had moved the petition for seeking short-term bail from the Court of Principal Sessions Judge, Kulgam, was not able to stitch facts properly, for which the petitioner should not have been made to suffer prejudice of having the denial of extension of bail. The bench granted extension of bail to the petitioner stating, “This Court cannot loose site of the fact that presence of an elder male member of a family for attending upon an ailing daughter requiring surgery/hospitalization is a call of the day keeping in view the nature of the Civil and Social of which all of us are part of.”
To view the official order, click on the link below:
