Orissa HC points SOP for disposal of seized contraband

By Express News Service

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has issued a course to eliminate purposes below the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act searching for permission for destruction of the seized contraband by all courts involved inside ten days from the date of submitting.

A division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice AK Mohapatra on Monday additional directed that every one purposes below NDPS Act pending earlier than the magistrates within the completely different judgeships throughout Odisha must be disposed of inside three months from February (in any occasion on or earlier than May 1, 2022). 

The instructions got here whereas issuing an SOP in response to a petition searching for intervention in opposition to courts involved not passing orders on purposes filed by respective investigating officers (IOs) searching for permission for destruction of the seized contraband. Serious difficulties are being confronted because the pending purposes have resulted in enhance in load of seized medicine, narcotics and psychotropic substances within the malkhana of courts and police stations and consequent scarcity of storage services. The State authorities filed the petition by SP, STF, CID CB.

As per the SOP, “All pending applications shown in Annexure-3 to the petition shall be taken up forthwith by a First Class Magistrate specifically nominated in each of the respective districts by the District and Sessions Judge, who will deal with such applications exclusively on all working Saturdays of the month till the entire backlog is cleared. If the number of such pending cases is large in a particular district, the District and Sessions Judge concerned will nominate more than one magistrate for the purpose.”