Delhi High Court Grants Bail In NDPS Case, Says Customs Detention Without Magistrate's Authorisation Illegal
Kapil Dhyani
16 Feb 2026 9:28 PM IST
The Delhi High Court has recently granted bail to a foreign national accused in a narcotics smuggling case, holding that once contraband was partially recovered at the airport, Customs authorities were bound to arrest him and produce him before a Magistrate, and that his continued detention without judicial authorisation rendered the subsequent arrest illegal.
Justice Manoj Jain observed, “The contraband contained in 19 capsules, suspected to be cocaine, was seized, and thus offence stood revealed, then and there. In such a situation, the applicant should have been arrested immediately and produced before the Court, even if further recovery was to be affected. Thereafter, Customs, as per order of the Court, could have taken him to hospital for further easing out of capsules.”
The bench added that in case delay in hospitalization had any potential of resulting in health-hazard for the applicant, “remand could have taken at the hospital also, by making appropriate request to the Court to come to the hospital for said purpose.”
The applicant, a Congolese national, was intercepted at Terminal-3 of IGI Airport in February 2022 after arriving from Addis Ababa. Customs officials suspected that he had concealed contraband inside his body and subsequently, 19 capsules were extracted. Thereafter, he was shifted to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where 54 more capsules were recovered, taking the total seizure to 73 capsules weighing about 986 grams, suspected to be cocaine.
The Court noted that under Section 103 of the Customs Act, a person suspected of secreting goods inside his body must be produced before the nearest Magistrate without unnecessary delay, unless there is a clear admission and voluntary submission to medical extraction.
Reliance was placed on Habiob Bedru Omer v. Customs (2025), where the High Court, in a case of similar nature, held that “the custody of the applicant was being transferred from one Officer to the other on the basis of the rotational duties. Thus, in the opinion of this Court, such custody without any authority and without producing him before the concerned Magistrate or Special Court within 24 hours in accordance with law is completely illegal. Even if the applicant was under medication for the procedure being carried out, the same cannot be a ground to keep him in custody. Magistrates exercising power of remand or otherwise in respect of persons in hospital is not unheard of and well recognised procedure in law.”
Examining the record, the Court found no clear or unequivocal admission or willingness by the accused that could justify bypassing remand. It concluded that the applicant had remained in the illegal custody of Customs from the time of interception till his formal arrest on February 25, 2022.
As such, the Court granted bail.
For Petitioner: Advocates Javed Khan with Anubhav Chandra.
For Respondent: Advocate Shubham Tyagi, SSC, CBI.