IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Cr.Misc. No.16622 of 2009 NARESH RAM Versus STATE OF BIHAR ----------- 2. 31.7.2009 Heard. While passing order of rejection on third prayer for bail of the petitioner I had directed the court below to expedite the hearing and conclude the trial in one year’s time. The contention is that charges were framed on 10.4.2008 and in spite of that till 23.4.2009 when the lower court was passing another order rejecting the prayer for bail of the petitioner in Special Case No. 6 of 2007, no witness was produced before it. It is contended that the learned Judge has not mentioned any reasons as to why the witnesses could not be produced or at best what steps he had taken for production of the witnesses. The court below, it was contended, simply noted the earlier rejection order passed by this Court and absolved itself of its duties of assigning the reasons by unjustifiably 2 mentioning that there is no fresh ground for bail. Longer period of custody of an accused without trial has been recognized as one of the grounds for granting bail, if the court finds that there could not be any possibility in near future to dispose of the trial. The Officer passing the impugned order is in the rank of Additional Sessions Judge and it is assumed that he must be aware of the above position of law as also that speedy trial is recognized as a fundamental right of an accused. The order appears an elucidation of a closed minded Judge who is predetermined to reject all prayers of bail. Let a copy of this order be communicated to the Judge concerned. As regards the petition, considering that the recovery is of 2.350 K.Gs. of Ganja which is below the commercial quantity and further considering that this case could be covered by Section 20(i(b) of the N.D.P.S. Act, let the petitioner, namely, Naresh Ram be released from custody on his furnishing a bond of Rs. 20,000/-(twenty thousand) with 3 two sureties of the like amount each to the satisfaction of the Additional Sessions Judge IXth, Patna in Special Case No. 6 of 2007, arising out of Kadam Kuan P.S.Case No. 34 of 2007. Kanth ( Dharnidhar Jha, J.)