Mandatory Section 50 safeguard under the NDPS Act vitiates recovery when the right to independent search is not honoured.

Section 50 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 was treated as a mandatory safeguard for a person searched on prior information, requiring effective notice of the right to be searched before the nearest Magistrate or gazetted officer. That obligation was held to continue even where the searching officer himself was a gazetted officer. Because the accused's request for such search was not honoured, the search and recovery were held vitiated. Where the conviction rested solely on that recovery, the breach of Section 50 rendered the conviction and sentence liable to be set aside.

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Issues: Whether non-compliance with the safeguard under Section 50 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 vitiates the recovery and conviction even when the search is conducted by an empowered gazetted officer.

Analysis: Section 50 was treated as a mandatory safeguard applicable whenever a person is searched on prior information under the Act. The combined operation of Sections 41, 42 and 50 shows that the suspect must be informed of the right to be searched before the nearest gazetted officer or Magistrate, and the obligation is not removed merely because the searching officer himself holds gazetted rank. The evidence showed that the accused sought to be searched before a Magistrate or gazetted officer, but that request was not acceded to. In view of the mandatory nature of the safeguard and the settled position that violation of Section 50 renders the recovery suspect and prejudices the accused where conviction rests solely on such recovery, the search was illegal.

Conclusion: The conviction and sentence were liable to be set aside because the search and recovery were vitiated by breach of Section 50.

Ratio Decidendi: In a search of a person under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, prior information search must be preceded by effective intimation of the statutory right under Section 50, and failure to honour that right vitiates the recovery and any conviction based solely on it.

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