HC orders specialised teams for NDPS investigations

Srinagar, Dec 22: The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has ordered that under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act investigation of the cases be henceforth conducted by a specifically trained specialised cell or team of officers with not below the rank of Sub-Inspector as its head under the close supervision of a gazetted officer, who shall monitor the progress of investigation on day to day basis and issue written guidelines to the team.

A Division Bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Muhammad Yousuf Wani also underscored that the Investigating agencies need to identify the real culprits behind the crime by ascertaining the source of narcotic drugs.

“The menace of drug addiction is more dangerous than any pandemic and thus the drug paddlers and addicts need to be distanced from society, kept in jail quarantine and then reformed in drug de-addiction centres,” the court said.

The bench said this while upholding the acquittal of a man from Jammu division’s district Rajouri, who was booked under the NDPS Act in 2015.

The bench held that all the concerned agencies - Central Excise, Narcotics, Customs, Revenue Intelligence and Police - were expected to rise to the occasion and investigate the narcotics cases with utmost responsibility and fairness.

The bench observed as “quite shocking” that medicines containing Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances as sole constituents or in the mixture are being sold as “over-the-counter drugs” for petty gains being unmindful of the devastative effects and deadly impact of the same on society as a whole.

“The manufacture, supply, transportation, sale and purchase of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances being prescribed and used as medicines should be strictly accounted for, right from the manufacturer up to the purchaser,” it said.

The court noted that the medical distributors, retailers, pharmacists, and all the druggists would as per the law, rules and regulations governing the field sell the drugs containing Narcotic and Phototrophic Substances, for medicinal use only on the prescriptions of the doctors or registered medical practitioners.

“They should keep a record of the sale of such drugs in order to prevent any misuse or abuse of the same. The Drug Control Department, Narcotics Control Bureau, Police and other concerned agencies are expected to be vigilant in the matter,” the court said.

It observed that it was equally surprising that investigations in NDPS cases are most often entrusted to incompetent officers.

While the court pointed out that in keeping with Section 175 of BNSS read with Section 53 of the NDPS Act, an officer incharge of a Police Station could investigate the offences under the NDPS Act, it said: “So a case under the NDPS Act cannot be investigated by a police officer below the rank of a Sub Inspector.”

The court observed that that a division bench of the court has already in a Public Interest Litigation No 05/2013 titled ‘Court on its Own Motion’ versus State of J&K and others passed a series of directions to ensure that in NDPS cases, the investigation is conducted in a proper and professional manner by adhering to the mandatory provisions of the Act so as to minimize the acquittals in justified cases.

“Central, state, and UT governments as such need to authorise the experienced and competent officers of Central Excise, Narcotics, Customs, Revenue Intelligence, and Police to exercise powers under Sections 41, 42 and 43 etc of the NDPS Act,” it said.

The court noted that a casual approach of the Investigating agencies in the matter of the investigation in NDPS cases “creates a sense of insecurity and undermines the faith of the common man in the administration of the criminal justice”.

While the court held that the investigations need to be carried out by a trained specialised team of officers, it ordered that a good number of the qualified and competent officers should be sent for refresher courses by the Home Department to learn the Drug Law Administration and enforcement including NDPS and PITNDPS Acts and Rules framed there under.

However, the court appreciated the efforts of the J&K government’s Home Department in issuing circular No 02-Home of 2017 dated September 25, 2017, prescribing the Standard Operating Procedures to be followed in NDPS cases, saying it expects that same shall be pressed into service.

“We should be failing in our duty, by not directing that NDPS cases should be tried under law, by the Special Courts under the act and by other Sessions Court with utmost diligence as priority sector litigation,” the bench said.