Section 293

The Supreme Court upheld a ten-year sentence under Section 15(c) of the NDPS Act for about 200 kg of poppy husk found in a car. It held that an officer who received a tip-off at a naka, recorded its substance in the ruqa sent to the police station before the search, and summoned the DSP to supervise it, substantially complied with Section 42. Section 50 did not apply because nothing was recovered from the personal search (paras 33, 36, 52).

The Supreme Court set aside a Bombay High Court order sending an NDPS ganja case back for retrial because the raid video was not explained by each witness, the chemical examiner was not examined and the seized ganja was not produced. Retrial is for exceptional cases; the video had a Section 65B certificate, the analyst's report is admissible under Section 293 CrPC, and non-production is not always fatal (paras 16-34).

The Supreme Court upheld a ten-year NDPS sentence for 1 kg 750 grams of opium recovered from a bag the appellant was carrying (paras 1, 12, 15). Section 50 applies only where the drug is recovered in a body search, not from a container carried by the accused (para 12). The absence of independent witnesses did not by itself show false implication, and a twelve-day delay in sending the sample was not fatal given the link evidence (paras 9-10, 14).