Section 50 NDPS safeguard: choice between a Gazetted Officer and Magistrate rests with the searching officer.

Section 50 of the NDPS Act is a safeguard requiring the person to be searched to be taken before a senior officer if that option is invoked. The provision does not give the accused a further right to insist on choosing between a Gazetted Officer and a Magistrate. Once the safeguard is triggered, the searching officer must produce the person before whichever of those two is nearest and conveniently available. The text therefore treats the choice between the two officers as resting with the searching officer, not with the person searched.

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Issues: Whether the option under Section 50 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 requires the person to be searched to choose between a Gazetted Officer and a Magistrate, or whether the choice of the nearest available Gazetted Officer or Magistrate rests with the searching officer.

Analysis: Section 50 confers a safeguard on the person to be searched by enabling him to require that the search be conducted in the presence of a senior officer. The language of the provision, especially the use of the word "nearest", indicates that the relevant choice is only whether the search should occur before such a senior officer. Once that request is made, the officer conducting the search must take the person before whichever of the two, namely a Gazetted Officer or a Magistrate, is nearest and conveniently available. The statute does not create a further right in the accused to insist on one of those two alternatives.

Conclusion: The option under Section 50 is limited to a search before the nearest available Gazetted Officer or Magistrate, and the choice between them lies with the searching officer. The contention that the accused must be given the choice between a Gazetted Officer and a Magistrate was rejected.

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