The Punjab & Haryana High Court on Wednesday granted bail to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia in a drugs case registered against him by the Punjab Police..The judgment was pronounced by a Division Bench of Justices MS Ramachandra Rao and Sureshwar Thakur..The case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in which Majithia is an accused dates back to 2013. A first information report (FIR) was registered based on a special task force report that was submitted before the High Court in 2018..The High Court had, on January 24, dismissed Majithia's plea for anticipatory bail, but granted him interim protection for three days to file an appeal before the Supreme Court.However, the Supreme Court in May declined to entertain the plea to quash the FIR against him, while observing,"We are not inclined to entertain the petition under Article 32. We allow the petitioner to approach the High Court and we direct that the petition be heard by the High Court's division bench only and not the single bench... We also grant liberty to the petitioner to move to the division bench of the High Court for all that he wants to seek, including bail application. We do not express any opinion on the merits of the case.".Nonetheless, the Supreme Court had granted him permission to approach a Division Bench of the High Court with his application to quash the FIR or to get bail in the case.
