DGPs to ensure compliance of NDPS Act to avoid acquittals: SC

The court gave the direction while dealing with section 42 of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, which pertains to the "power of entry, search, seizure and arrest without warrant or authorisation."

Section 42 of the NDPS Act also says that when an officer receive any secret information about narcotics, he/she shall have to inform his superior officer immediately about it.

"Before we part with this file, we consider it the duty of the court to direct the director general of police concerned of all the states to issue appropriate instructions directing the investigating officers to duly comply with the provisions of Section 42 of NDPS Act at the appropriate stage to avoid such acquittals," said a bench of justices Swatanter Kumar and Madan B Lokur.

The bench said the compliance of section 42 of the NDPS Act is mandatory as "it is the incumbent duty of every investigating officer (IO) to comply with the same in true substance and spirit in consonance with the law...."

The court gave the direction while allowing an appeal by Haryana resident Sukhdev Singh who was sentenced to 10 years in jail along with a fine of Rs one lakh by the trial court in July 1998. His conviction had been upheld by the Punjab and Haryana High Court also in March 2008.

The same bench also allowed another plea of Haryana native Kishan Chand who too was sentenced to jail for 10 years along with a fine of Rs one lakh in an NDPS case. (MORE)