SC concerned over seized narcotics reaching market

There is hardly any state which is not affected by the menace

The Supreme Court has taken a grim view of the phenomenon of seized drug and narcotics reaching the market due to negligence of the authorities and directed all the state governments to furnish the records of seizure, storage and destruction of the contraband in the last 10 years.

A bench of Justices T S Thakur and Gyan Sudha Misra also wanted to know if there was any judicial supervision of the whole operation.“The problem is both wide-spread and formidable. There is hardly any state in the country today which is not affected by the production, transportation, marketing and abuse of drugs in large quantities.
There is in that scenario no gainsaying that the complacency of the government or the officers dealing with the problem and its magnitude is wholly misplaced.”

“While fight against production, sale and transportation of the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance) is an ongoing process, it is equally important to ensure that the quantities that are seized by the police and other agencies do not go back in circulation on account of neglect or apathy on the part of those handling the process of seizure, storage and destruction of such contrabands,” the bench said.

The court passed its order while hearing an appeal filed by the Union government against Madhya Pradesh High Court’s order of 2008 acquitting two persons of the charges of possessing over 3 kg opium as the prosecution failed to prove destruction of the contraband. The HC had said since the drug was never produced before the court, it could be concluded that it was never seized by the authorities from the possession of the accused.

The court desired collection of the data from the police head and chief secretary of each state on the issue and directed them to furnish the information to registrar general of their respective High Courts within three months.

“Studies show that a large section of the youth are already victims of drug abuse and are suffering its pernicious effects. Immediate steps are, therefore, necessary to prevent the situation from going out of hand. We, therefore, consider it necessary to direct collection of the information from the police heads of each one of the States through the Chief Secretary concerned,” the bench said.

The court also directed the registrar generals to independently secure information from each district judge on a number of points including as to if there is any inspection done by them of the store where the seized drugs are kept and if they have taken any steps to destroy drugs lying in the store.