Formulate SOP for search, seizure under NDPS Act, HC tells DGP

The High Court has directed the Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP) to issue suitable directions and formulate a standard operating procedure (SOP) for search and seizure in terms of various provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

Justice Suraj Govindaraj said that the SOP shall be issued within four weeks and shall also indicate the penalty for violation.

“It is rather shocking that in spite of the NDPS Act being in existence and operating for several decades these kinds of procedural irregularities are committed by the police officers leading to the quashing of criminal proceedings,” Justice Suraj Govindaraj said.

The court has directed the DG&IGP to issue suitable directions in terms of various provisions of the NDPS Act including under sections 42, 43 and 50.

The court said that the DGP could also consider imparting training to the concerned officers by utilising the services of the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru.

In the petition before the court, the police had found ganja weighing 1.1 kg and Rs 900 in cash on the petitioner Mruthyunjaya, a resident of Jodipura village of Malur taluk in Kolar district. He was booked under the NDPS Act.

The petitioner argued that the search and seizure were conducted by the constable and police inspector of Malur station at the police station, which is a clear violation of section 50 of the NDPS Act.

The high court’s government pleader submitted that cash was found in Mruthyunjaya’s shirt pocket while ganja was in his bag. He said that the search of the bag would not amount to the search of the person.

The court pointed out that the NDPS Act provides for the search of a place under section 42, the search of a public place under section 43 and the search of a person under section 50.

The court said that the search of a person, being of a higher nature, additional protection and additional safeguards have been provided in the presence of a gazetted officer as mentioned in the Act or before the nearest Magistrate.

“In view of the above, I am of the considered opinion that the search which has been carried out in the present case of a bag on the person of the petitioner amounting to a search of a person, the mandatory requirement of Subsection (1) of Section 50 of NDPS not having been followed, the entire search is vitiated and all further proceedings require to be quashed,” the court said.