Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 15: Division Bench of State High Court comprising Justice Hasnain Masoodi and Justice Janak Raj Kotwal today took serious note of low conviction in Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPSA) cases.
After hearing Senior Advocate Sunil Sethi for the PIL whereas Senior AAG appearing for the State, DB observed, “compliance report filed by respondent-Director General of Police in terms of order dated 16.09.2014 would reveal that in a meeting chaired by Principal Secretary, Home on 25.08.2014, number of decisions were taken for effective investigation and prosecution of cases under NDPS Act”.
“It remains to be unknown as to what action has been taken pursuant to the decisions recorded in the minutes of the meeting dated 25.08.2014 and whether the decisions are implemented on ground”, the DB observed and issued directions for filing detailed action taken report.
“Any effort to improve investigation and prosecution in cases under NDPS Act would succeed only in case necessary mechanism is evolved on the basis of the statistics/data as regards the number of cases registered, volume and composition of contraband seized, number of samples of seized contraband referred to FSL for analysis, time taken by FSL to communicate analysis report to the investigating officer and the time taken for completion of the investigation”, the DB said.
“The information with regard to rate of conviction and primary reasons for failure of the prosecution as also the rank of the investigating officers in the police hierarchy, would also be relevant while putting an efficient mechanism in place”, the DB said and directed Principal Secretary Home to file an affidavit detailing number of cases with court-wise breakup under various provisions of NDPS Act pending in different courts of the State, number of cases under NDPS Act under investigation in different Police Stations of the State , number of cases under NDPS Act reported and registered from 01.01.2014 to 31.03.2015 and the nature and volume of contraband seized.
The Division Bench directed Principal Secretary Home to file an affidavit before June 11.
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