STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH Vs. GOPI CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Respondent was chargesheeted, tried and acquitted for the offence punishable under Section 20 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act (here-in-after referred to as the Act), keeping in his possession 150 grams of 'Charas'.

(2.) We have heard Mr. Ramesh Thakur, learned Assistant Advocate General, for the appellant, but nobody appeared for the respondent despite notice and reflecting the name of the learned counsel for the respondent in the Cause List. Therefore, in view of the recent judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court rendered in K.S. Panduranga Vs. State of Karnataka, 2013 3 JT 514, we proceed to decide the matter on its merit.

(3.) Mr. Ramesh Thakur, learned Assistant Advocate General, submitted that the learned trial Court has wrongly passed acquittal for non-compliance of the provisions of Section 50 of the Act, as the polythene packet containing contraband was in the hands of the respondent (hereinafter to be referred as 'the accused').