2001 AIR SCW 2970 ::2001 AIR SCW 2875 ::(2002) 139 ELT 241 ::2001 UJ(SC) 2 1502 ::2001 (2) UJ (SC) 1341 ::(2002) Mad LJ(Cri) 59 ::2001 (6) SCC 581 ::2002 (1) MadLW 483 ::(2001) 3 RecCriR 808 ::2001 (5) Scale 30 ::2001 CriLR(SC MAH GUJ) 504

Supreme Court Of India

(From : Kerala)*

Hon'ble Judge(s): A. S. Anand, Ajay Prakash Misra, Shivaraj V. Patil , JJJ

(A) Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (61 of 1985) , S.42— @page-SC3191NARCOTIC DRUGS - Information constituting offence - Sending it forthwith to immediate superior by officer who has received such an information in compliance with S. 42 - Not mandatory, when in fact situation following mandate strictly results in delay in trapping accused which may lead the accused to escape. It is true under S. 42(1), the Officer concerned, when he has reason to believe from his personal knowledge or information received from any person, he is obliged to take it down in writing if such information constitutes an offence punishable under Chapter IV of the Act and send it forthwith to his immediate superior. In construing any facts to find, whether prosecution has complied with the mandate of any provision which is mandatory, one has to examine it with pragmatic approach. The law under the aforesaid Act being stringent to the persons involved in the field of illicit drug traffic and drug abuse, the legislature, time and again, has made some of its provisions obligatory for the prosecution to comply, which the Courts have interpreted it to be mandatory. This is in order to balance the stringency for an accused by casting an obligation on the prosecution for its strict compliance. The stringency is because of the type of crime involved under it, so that no such p....