A trial court convicted one Udai Lal of transporting (maize and) opium and sentenced him to ten years in jail. It also fined him one lakh INR. The Rajasthan High Court acquitted him and the State filed an appeal against this decision in the Supreme Court.

A Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat and P. Sathasivam said that the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act is a special Act and the High Courts should exercise their powers cautiously keeping in mind that the Act aims to prevent smuggling.

The Court said:

“The law on the point is very clear that even if there is any sort of procedural illegality in conducting search and seizure, the evidence collected thereby will not become inadmissible and the court would consider all the circumstances and find out whether any serious prejudice had been caused to the accused.”

“If the search and seizure was in complete defiance of the law and procedure and there was any possibility of the evidence collected likely to have been tampered with or interpolated during the course of such search or seizure, then, it could be said that the evidence is not liable to be admissible in evidence.”

“In order to consolidate and amend the law relating to narcotic drugs, to make stringent provisions for the control and regulation of operations relating to narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, to provide for the forfeiture of property derived from, or used in, illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, to implement the provisions of the International Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, Parliament enacted NDPS Act in the year 1985.”

The Supreme Court said that it was satisfied that the High Court failed to consider all the relevant materials and circumstances and remitted the case to the High Court for fresh disposal in six months’ time.

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