CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has issued a direction to dispose of applications under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act seeking permission for destruction of the seized contraband by all courts concerned within ten days from the date of filing.
A division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice AK Mohapatra on Monday further directed that all applications under NDPS Act pending before the magistrates in the different judgeships across Odisha should be disposed of within three months from February (in any event on or before May 1, 2022).
The directions came while issuing an SOP in response to a petition seeking intervention against courts concerned not passing orders on applications filed by respective investigating officers (IOs) seeking permission for destruction of the seized contraband. Serious difficulties are being faced as the pending applications have resulted in increase in load of seized drugs, narcotics and psychotropic substances in the malkhana of courts and police stations and consequent shortage of storage facilities. The State government filed the petition through 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.”