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The State of Himachal Pradesh v. Surat Singh

Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 240Decided 16 Mar 2026
Crl.A. No.-000096-000096 - 2018
Justice Pankaj Mithal · Justice Prasanna B. Varale · Justice Vipul M. Pancholi

Background

During a police checkpoint (nakabandi) in Himachal Pradesh in March 2013, the respondent was stopped while carrying a bag that was found to contain over 11 kg of charas (cannabis resin). He was convicted by the trial court under the NDPS Act, but the Himachal Pradesh High Court set aside the conviction and acquitted him, holding that the police had not properly informed him of his right under Section 50 of the NDPS Act to be searched before a Magistrate or Gazetted Officer. The State of Himachal Pradesh appealed to the Supreme Court against the acquittal.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court upheld the High Court's acquittal and dismissed the State's appeal. It found that the police had wrongly offered the accused a "third option", search by the police officer himself, which is not permitted under Section 50 of the NDPS Act; the law only allows a choice between a Magistrate and a Gazetted Officer, and the Constitution Bench in Vijaysinh Chandubha Jadeja has held this requirement to be mandatory, not merely directory. The Court also noted a factual inconsistency in the prosecution's evidence: a witness testified that no electronic weighing scale was available at the relevant shop, contradicting the prosecution's claim that the seized contraband was weighed on one. Relying on its own precedents (Suresh v. State of MP and State of Rajasthan v. Parmanand), the Court held that this non-compliance with Section 50 vitiated the search and rendered the conviction unsustainable.

Lesson Learnt

Strict compliance with Section 50 of the NDPS Act is mandatory: police must clearly inform a person being searched of the specific legal right to be searched before a Magistrate or a Gazetted Officer, and offering the person's own search by the police as an alternative is not lawful and can void an otherwise strong prosecution case.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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