The central legal point established in the judgment is the requirement of strict compliance with procedural safeguards provided under the NDPS Act, including the necessity of informing accused about their rights, conducting searches in the presence of independent persons, and maintaining proper custody and sealing of seized articles.

These are the three appeals arising out of a common judgment passed by the Addl. Sessions Judge / 1st Fast Track Court, Rudrapur, Udham Singh Nagar in Special Sessions Trial Nos. 40/2002 (State Vs. Dal Bahadur S/o Sher Bahadur), 37/2002 (State Vs. Arif Khan S/o Yusuf Khan @ Raees Khan) & 39/ 2002 (State Vs. Bhawani Chandra S/o Sri Bahadur Chandra ). Vide the afore said judgment dated 15-11-2003, the learned Addl. Sessions Judge/lst Fast Track Court has convicted all the ac cused-appellants under Sections 18/20 of the N. D. RS. Act and sentenced them to undergo RI for ten years and also im posed fine of Rs. 1 lakh upon each of the accused-appellants. The learned Addl. Sessions Judge further directed that in default of payment of fine, the appellants would further undergo impris onment for one year. Now, since these appeals have arisen out of a common judgment, as such, I am disposing of these appeals collectively by this com mon judgment.

2. The case of the prosecution, in brief, is that on 25-11-2001, S. H. O. Rajendra Singh Hayanki, RS. Khatima, received an information from the in former that a person accompanied by a lady who is his wife, is coming on a mo torcycle bearing no. UP 22 C 2761 from Melaghat in the way to Rampur and are having charas in their possession. Be lieving the said information, S. H. O. Rajendra Singh Hayanki informed the CO. , Khatima on R. T. set and requested him to reach at Jhankaiya police out post. S. H. O. Rajendra Singh Hayanki also called a lady constable from Nanakmatta police station he police raiding party headed by S. H. O. Rajendra Singh Hayanki reached at the spot and the Circle Officer also reached at the spot at about 2 pm. Thereafter, the police raiding party took Sachin Kumar and Suraj Dev as public witnesses for the purpose of conducting the search of the accused persons. After sometime as per the information of the informer, the ac cused persons came from the side of the Melaghat on the

motorcycle. The Circle Officer stopped the motorcycle and both the persons were apprehended by the police at about 3. 10 pm at the spot. On being interrogated, they disclosed their names as Arif Khan (the present appel lant) S/o Yusuf Khan @ Raees Khan and Abida W/o the present appellant-Arif Khan: (It is to be noted that I am not concerned with the case of Abida as no appeal is pending before me relating to her case ). The accused/appellant-Arif Khan had a bag on his shoulder in which he was carrying 2 kgs of charas. The police seized the said charas and was sealed in two different bundles. Out of these two bundles, one bundle was of 100 grams and was kept separately as a sample for the purpose of sending it to the chemical examiner for its chemi cal examination while the other was kept separately for the purpose of producing it as evidence. The appellant-Arif Khan also informed the police raiding party that two persons/nepalese are also coming with charas from the side of Melaghat. After being informed of this fact by the appellant-Arif Khan, the police raiding party also started waiting there to apprehend them. On the point ing out of the appellant-Arif Khan, the police raiding party saw that two persons are coming from the side of Melaghat at about 4. 20 pm. The police raiding party immediately apprehended them. They disclosed their names as Bhawani Chandra (the present appellant in CRLA No. 41/2000) and Dal Bahadur (the present appellant in CRLA No. 677 2007 ). The Circle Officer conducted the search of the accused-appellants, Bhawani Chandra and Dal Bahadur. On their personal search, it was found that Bhawani Chandra had wrapped about one and a half kgs. of charas on his back in a pink coloured cloth inside the kurta (shirt) whereas Dal Bahadur had also wrapped about one and a half kgs of charas on his back in a purple col oured cloth inside the kurta (shirt ). The said charas which was recovered from the appellants- Bhawani Chandra and Dal Bahadur were kept in four separate bundles. Out of thes

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