New Delhi, June 29: Suspects in drug and narcotics smuggling cases have the right to insist on the presence of a gazetted officer or magistrate when they are frisked for contraband to ensure transparency in investigation, the Supreme Court has ruled.
 Interpreting Section 50 of the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS), a bench of justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai said failure to follow the procedure would cause a definite prejudice to the accused.
 "A careful perusal of Section 50 indicates that when any authorised officer is about to search any person under the provisions of Sections 41, 42 or 43 of the NDPS Act, if such person (accused) requires (demands), he (officer) has to take him, without unnecessary delay, to the nearest gazetted officer of any of the departments mentioned in Section 42 or to the nearest magistrate.
 "In short, the suspect can insist that his search be conducted before a gazetted officer or a magistrate. Needless to say that a suspect may insist on the presence of a gazetted officer or a magistrate so as to introduce transparency in the search," said Justice Desai, who wrote the judgement.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 29 Jun 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
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