Mandatory compliance with Section 42(2) of the NDPS Act is required; total non-compliance vitiates conviction.

Complete non-compliance with the mandatory requirement under Section 42(2) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 vitiates a conviction. The Court held that an empowered officer who records information about narcotic activity must forthwith send a copy to the immediate superior, and only delayed compliance may be accepted in an emergent situation if satisfactorily explained. Here, the officer admitted that the secret information was neither reduced into writing nor sent to any superior officer, and wireless intimation was held insufficient. The conviction was therefore unsustainable and the appellant was entitled to acquittal.

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Issues: Whether complete non-compliance with Section 42(2) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 vitiated the conviction.

Analysis: The statutory scheme required an empowered officer, when information about narcotic activity was taken down in writing, to forthwith send a copy to the immediate superior. The authoritative interpretation of Section 42 held that while delayed compliance may be accepted in emergent situations with satisfactory explanation, total non-compliance is impermissible. On the evidence, the officer who received the secret information admitted that he neither reduced it into writing nor sent it to any superior officer, and the superior officer gave no evidence of receiving any such written information. Wireless intimation did not amount to compliance with Section 42(2).

Conclusion: The conviction could not be sustained because Section 42(2) was wholly not complied with, and the appellant was entitled to acquittal.

Ratio Decidendi: Total non-compliance with the mandatory requirement to record information in writing and send it forthwith to the immediate superior under Section 42(2) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 vitiates the conviction, unless delayed compliance is satisfactorily explained in an emergent situation.

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