In Brief
A man was convicted by the High Court for possessing 1 kg 230 gms of charas (cannabis resin) found during a police search in 1994. He challenged the conviction, arguing the High Court wrongly reversed his acquittal. The Supreme Court dismissed his appeal, holding that the trial court improperly relied on an unauthenticated document (a prosecution bail reply) without confronting the witness with it. The court upheld the conviction, finding police witnesses credible and their evidence sufficient despite the absence of independent corroboration. Regarding sentencing, the court confirmed that the total weight of the seized mixture, not merely its resin content, determines whether it constitutes a commercial quantity under NDPS law, warranting the ten-year minimum sentence.
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