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4. Learned counsel for the applicant submits that applicant is innocent and has been falsely implicated. Without prejudice, it is submitted that the sampling procedure followed by the prosecution is in clear violation of Standing Order 1/89 dated 13.06.1989 issued by the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. In order to seize the contraband substance, ASI Mange Ram checked only 1 out of the 125 packets with the help of field testing kit ignoring the remaining 124 packets. Oblivious of the procedure laid down in Standing Order Nos. 1/88 and 1/89, This is a digitally signed order.

This is a digitally signed order.

The authenticity of the order can be re-verified from Delhi High Court Order Portal by scanning the QR code shown above. The Order is downloaded from the DHC Server on 25/04/2024 at 22:43:13 This has caused immense prejudice to the applicant as it can never be ascertained as to what were the actual contents of the packets and/or their weight. Evidence shows that seizing officer has mixed about 20 packets in a single blue colour polythene and created 06 lots of 20 packets and 01 lot of 04 packets. Learned counsel submits that this Court in Sandeep v. State (NCT of Delhi), 2024 SCC OnLine Del 451, Amina v. State NCT of Delhi, 2023 SCC OnLine Del 3491 and Betty Rame v. Narcotics Control Bureau, 2023 SCC OnLine Del 3279, has held that where sampling procedure followed by the prosecution does not confirm to the aforementioned Standing Orders, accused will be entitled to bail.

10. The primordial ground raised on behalf of the applicant in the present application is that the sampling procedure followed by the prosecution is not in consonance with the procedure laid down in Standing Order No. 1/88 dated 15.03.1988 issued by Narcotics Control Bureau and Standing Order No. 1/89 dated 13.06.1989 issued by Ministry of Finance, Government of India. Before proceeding to examine the contentions of the parties, it would be relevant to examine the applicable provisions of the NDPS Act and look at the judicial precedents on the issue. Section 52 of the NDPS Act deals with measures that are required to be taken by an Officer for disposal of persons arrested and articles seized. Section 52A NDPS Act provides the procedure for disposal of seized narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances including the procedure for sampling. For ready reference, Section 52A is extracted hereunder:-

31. Pursuant to appreciation of contentions of the parties as well as documents on record, this Court is of the considered opinion that the petitioner is entitled to be enlarged on bail subject to certain conditions.

32. The fact that the contraband which was seized contained in 2000 pudiyas 100 each in 20 bags, were all emptied together in a plastic jar, was prima facie not in compliance with the process envisaged under the SO 1/88 and 1/89, as adverted to above. The procedure, in compliance with the standing orders, could have been adopted, inter alia to make lots of a bunch of pudiyas together, as envisaged in the SO. By mixing all the pudiyas together, the sample was not a true representative sample and the composition of the mix would therefore, would be at a serious variance. Even though these are issues which would have to be considered at the point of trial, it would still import an element of reasonable doubt in the sampling procedure undertaken."