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Narayan Das v. State of Chhattisgarh

Special Leave Petition (Criminal) · 2025 INSC 872Decided 17 Jul 2025
SLP(Crl) No.-010310-010310 - 2025 (Diary No. 30825/2025)
Justice J.B. Pardiwala · Justice R. Mahadevan

Background

The petitioner was caught by police along with a co-accused in possession of 236 vials of codeine-based cough syrup (a controlled psychotropic substance) and was convicted under the NDPS Act. The trial court sentenced him to 12 years' rigorous imprisonment; the High Court, while dismissing his appeal, reduced this to 10 years: the statutory minimum under the Act.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found no good reason to interfere with the conviction or the reduced sentence, rejecting the petitioner's challenges to the seizure procedure. However, it flagged that the High Court had misunderstood Section 32-B of the NDPS Act, which lists factors a court "may" consider when imposing a sentence above the statutory minimum. The High Court had treated this list as if the minimum sentence were effectively a ceiling unless one of the listed factors applied. The Supreme Court clarified, citing its own precedent, that courts have discretion to consider the quantity of the substance and any other factor they deem fit, in addition to (not limited to) the factors specifically listed in Section 32-B(a) to (f), when deciding to impose a sentence higher than the minimum.

Lesson Learnt

Under the NDPS Act, judges are not restricted to only the specific factors listed in Section 32-B when deciding to award a sentence above the statutory minimum: the quantity of the seized substance and other relevant considerations can also justify a higher sentence.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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