Arya Thakkar & Vedant Karia, NMIMS Kirit P. Mehta School of Law, Mumbai
ABSTRACT
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (herein after referred as "NDPS Act") has strict restrictions, where bail is biggest question, have caused several of its provisions to come under intense scrutiny. The case of Aryan Khan was the most recent instance of the NDPS Act's repeated refusal of bail. Aryan Khan's bail applications were repeatedly denied because the strict standard of "reasonable grounds for thinking that he is innocent" was not met. Under the NDPS Act, it often happens that rather than regarding the accused as innocent until proven guilty, the burden of proof shifts from the prosecution towards the defendant and it is on the defendant to prove his innocence for getting bail. NDPS Act's Section 37 establishes stringent criteria for the granting of bail. In this paper, we'll examine the NDPS Act's provisions for bail as well as try to understand why is it difficult to get bail under such cases and also try to understand that whether it is believable that the accused is required to prove not guilty to grant bail in NDPS cases.
Keywords: NDPS Act, Bail, Innocence, Guilt , Burden of Proof.
