https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=162138 Section 50 of the NDPS Act applies only to a personal search and not to recovery from an article carried by the accused; accordingly, seizure from a tin box in the accused's hand did not attract Section 50 safeguards, and the absence of independent witnesses did not vitiate recovery. The statutory scheme under Section 52A concerns disposal of seized narcotic substances and the evidentiary value of inventories, photographs and samples, not the manner of search. Standing orders and sampling instructions were treated as directory guidance rather than mandatory rules, so their breach did not invalidate the prosecution. The conviction and sentence were restored. en-us Fri, 27 Feb 2004 00:00:00 +0530 Tue, 14 Apr 2020 12:22:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=162138 Section 50 of the NDPS Act applies only to a personal search and not to recovery from an article carried by the accused; accordingly, seizure from a tin box in the accused's hand did not attract Section 50 safeguards, and the absence of independent witnesses did not vitiate recovery. The statutory scheme under Section 52A concerns disposal of seized narcotic substances and the evidentiary value of inventories, photographs and samples, not the manner of search. Standing orders and sampling instructions were treated as directory guidance rather than mandatory rules, so their breach did not invalidate the prosecution. The conviction and sentence were restored. Case-Laws Indian Laws Fri, 27 Feb 2004 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=162138