Section 50 NDPS safeguard applies only to personal search, not to checked baggage outside the accused's possession.

Section 50 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 applies to a personal search, not to baggage or articles not in the accused's actual possession at the time of search. The Supreme Court noted that the safeguard in Section 50, including the special rule for searching a female, is directed to the person being searched; however, a handbag or similar article carried on the person may still attract the provision. On the facts, the incriminating article was found in a checked-in bag taken from the aircraft luggage compartment, so the search was not a search of the person. Section 50 was therefore not attracted, and non-compliance did not vitiate the prosecution.

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Issues: Whether Section 50 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 applied to the search of baggage not in the accused's actual possession at the time of search, and whether non-compliance with that provision vitiated the prosecution.

Analysis: Section 50 is attracted when an authorised officer is about to search a person. The provision, read with the special safeguard in sub-section (4) regarding the search of a female by a female, shows that the statutory protection is directed to personal search and not to the search of articles lying elsewhere and later brought to the place of search. At the same time, where a handbag or similar article is being carried on the person, the search may still amount to a search of the person. On the facts, the incriminating article was found in a bag that had already been checked in, was out of the accused's reach, and was brought from the aircraft luggage compartment for examination. The search was therefore not a search of the person within the meaning of Section 50.

Conclusion: Section 50 was not attracted, and its non-compliance did not vitiate the prosecution. The petition was rightly dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: Section 50 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 applies only to the search of a person, and not to the search of baggage or articles not in the accused's actual possession at the time of search.

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