[Aryan Khan] Why was bail rejected and what are the remedies available?

A Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) in Mumbai on Friday rejected the bail application filed by Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan's son Aryan Khan in the cruise ship drug case, on the ground that the same was not maintainable..This essentially meant that the Magistrate did not actually go into the merits of Khan's bail plea. In other words, he did not examine whether Khan was entitled to bail or not. Instead, the Magistrate refused to entertain the bail application on the ground that he did not have the jurisdiction to hear the bail application.Why was bail rejected by Magistrate?The decision was taken after the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) argued that the bail plea should have been filed before a Special court assigned under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act) to hear such cases.To substantiate this argument, NCB counsel Additional Solicitor General Anil, relied upon Section 36A of NDPS Act to argue the offences alleged against the accused were all exclusively triable by the special court only.In this regard, reliance was placed on the judgment of the Bombay High Court in Rhea Chakraborty v. Union of India in which it was held that all offences under the NDPS Act are non-bailable and cognizable in nature."Hence, they are triable only by special court. Since the offence are triable exclusively by special court, the CMM has no jurisdiction to even entertain this application," the NCB contended.It was also submitted when different accused persons under the NDPS Act are arrayed in the same case for conspiracy, the offences are exclusively triable by special Court and hence bail applications cannot be heard by Magsitrate. Since, in the instant case all accused persons are an integral part of the common thread, they cannot be separated and tried differently, it was submitted.Magistrate RM Nerlikar accepted these submissions held that the bail applications were not maintainable and hence rejected the same..What is the way forward for Aryan Khan?.Khan has two remedies. First is that he can file an appeal against the order of the Magistrate, which will lie before the Special Judge under the NDPS Act, who is essentially a Sessions Judge specially assigned to hear NCB cases. .However, the Magistrate clarified that since the hearing went on till after court hours, there was not much time for writing a detailed order and only pronounced the operative part of the order in the court.Considering the submissions went on for almost 5 hours, it might take a while before the Magistrate dictates the entire judgment..The order will be dictated by Saturday. So till the order copy is available, Khan will not be able to file his appeal challenging the order.The other remedy available to Khan is to file a regular bail application before the Special Court at Sessions at the first instance without going for an appeal..However, what is stopping Khan’s lawyers from approaching the Special Court is that it is shut on Saturday and Sunday. Hence, they can only move the court on Monday..Till then, Khan will have to spend at least 3 nights in Arthur Road Prison in Mumbai. He is presently lodged in the quarantine cell on account of the COVID protocols. Once the quarantine period is over, he will be transferred to a prison cell till he is granted bail.