The Supreme Court has ruled that suspects in drug and narcotics smuggling cases have the right to insist on the presence of a gazetted officer or nearest magistrate when they are frisked for contraband to ensure transparency in investigation.

Interpreting Section 50 of the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS), a bench of justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai said failure to follow the procedure would cause a definite prejudice to the accused.

Justice Desai, who wrote the judgement.
said that a suspect may insist on the presence of a gazetted officer or a magistrate so as to introduce transparency in the search. The apex court gave the ruling while acquitting three persons convicted and sentenced to six months Rigorous Imprisionment by a sessions court in Andhra Pradesh for sale of ganja. They were arrested by a police team who claimed that they had seized ganja from the possession.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court had upheld their conviction following which one of the convicts had come in an appeal to the apex court, contending that Section 50 of the NDPS Act was not followed by the authorities and their conviction was illegal.