Make use of smartphone in drug cases, says HC

Saurabh Malik

Advertisement

Chandigarh, February 10

More than 37 years after the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act came into force, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has called upon state governments to evolve a procedure for preventing false implications, or undeserved acquittal, of the accused by logging on to the Internet through smartphones.

Evolve steps to check false implication

The prosecution agency may evolve any measure with an objective to weed out the chance of false implication/undeserved acquittal so that the real culprit gets convicted and the innocent is not falsely implicated. Justice Pankaj Jain

Justice Pankaj Jain also made it clear that the procedure adopted by the police so far for carrying out personal search of an accused in drug cases was leading to their acquittal in some cases, while being ignored in others. Dismissing an appeal against conviction in a drugs case, Justice Jain further made it clear that the investigating agencies were required to be more proactive, and the investigation more robust.

The appellant-convict before the court was sentenced to two years’ rigorous imprisonment in a drugs case registered in June 2003 at the Sadar police station in Pathankot. Among other things, his counsel contended that bare perusal of the consent memos, recorded at the time of the search and seizure, indicated that the FIR number had been mentioned.

He argued that the mentioning of the number prior to the FIR registration raised a doubt regarding the investigation. It showed that the investigating authorities were sure about the recovery of the contraband, leading to the FIR registration even prior to the search, clearly pointing towards his false implication.

Justice Jain asserted that the court felt it necessary to put on record that the issue had been a subject matter of continuous debate in a series of precedents. It stood settled that Section 50 of the NDPS Act on search procedure was mandatory. Its non-compliance could lead to acquittal.

Justice Jain added that consent/non-consent memos under Section 50 were prepared prior to the FIR registration when a personal search was to be made. In some cases, the plea was taken that the consent memos were prepared after the FIR registration. It was evident from mentioning of the FIR details in memos, leading to acquittal. In some other matters, it was held to be inconsequential.

Justice Jain added that more than 37 years had gone by since the Act was enacted in 1985. As a majority of the investigating officers were equipped with smartphones, it was desirable for the state governments to come up with some web portal for uploading the consent/non-consent memo at the time of preparation. It could then generate a unique ID number, which could be utilised as reference at the time of the FIR registration.

“It will be a cogent evidence at least to prove the place, date and time where and when such memo was uploaded. This is one of the ways in which the uncertainty involving this important aspect of the investigation can be weeded out…. The prosecution agency may evolve any such measure with an objective to weed out the chance of false implications/undeserved acquittal so that the real culprit gets conviction and the innocent is not falsely implicated,” Justice Jain added.