https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=175882 Section 50 of the NDPS Act is mandatory where a person is searched, and the suspect must be clearly informed of the right to be searched before the nearest gazetted officer or Magistrate; a mere question whether such a search is desired is insufficient. On the stated facts, that safeguard was not properly communicated, so the search and recovery evidence was vitiated and could not sustain the conviction in the absence of independent corroboration. Once the recovery evidence failed, the enhanced conviction and sentence under Section 31 also collapsed because they depended on the underlying conviction and were otherwise inapplicable on the facts. en-us Wed, 27 Oct 1999 00:00:00 +0530 Tue, 08 Dec 2015 10:55:16 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=175882 Section 50 of the NDPS Act is mandatory where a person is searched, and the suspect must be clearly informed of the right to be searched before the nearest gazetted officer or Magistrate; a mere question whether such a search is desired is insufficient. On the stated facts, that safeguard was not properly communicated, so the search and recovery evidence was vitiated and could not sustain the conviction in the absence of independent corroboration. Once the recovery evidence failed, the enhanced conviction and sentence under Section 31 also collapsed because they depended on the underlying conviction and were otherwise inapplicable on the facts. Case-Laws Customs Wed, 27 Oct 1999 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=175882