Person aggrieved under the NDPS Act excludes an investigating officer and the Bureau from filing the statutory appeal.

The statutory appeal under section 68-O of the NDPS Act is confined to a genuine person aggrieved by an order of the competent authority. An Intelligence Officer who merely investigates, issues the initial freezing order under section 68-F(1), and has no further statutory role in the adjudication is not a party to the lis and cannot contest the affected person's case before the competent authority. On that scheme, neither the officer nor the Narcotics Control Bureau qualifies as a person aggrieved, so the appellate remedy was unavailable to them and the appeal was not maintainable.

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Issues: Whether the Intelligence Officer of the Narcotics Control Bureau, or the Bureau itself, was a "person aggrieved" entitled to maintain an appeal under section 68-O of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 against the order of the competent authority.

Analysis: The appellate provision permits an appeal by a person aggrieved by specified orders of the competent authority. The Investigating Officer under the NDPS Act only investigates, makes enquiry, and passes an initial freezing order under section 68-F(1); thereafter he has no statutory role, no duty to appear before the competent authority, and no right to lead evidence or contest the affected person's case. On the scheme of the Act, the competent authority is not deciding a lis between the investigating officer and the affected person. The position is analogous to a subordinate officer who merely performs investigation and is not a party to the adjudication. Accordingly, neither the individual officer nor the Bureau answers the description of a person aggrieved under section 68-O.

Conclusion: The appeal was not maintainable, as neither the Intelligence Officer nor the Narcotics Control Bureau had locus standi under section 68-O.

Final Conclusion: The statutory appellate remedy under the NDPS Act was confined to a true person aggrieved by the competent authority's order, and the investigating officer or the Bureau could not invoke it against that order.

Ratio Decidendi: A subordinate investigating officer who has no statutory duty to participate in the adjudication before the competent authority is not a person aggrieved for the purpose of the appellate provision; only a party to the statutory lis can maintain such an appeal.

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