# HP High Court: No third option after accused picks Gazetted Officer under NDPS 2026-08-14T23:44:30+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet The Himachal Pradesh High Court has held that Section 50 of the NDPS Act does not allow any officer, including the Gazetted Officer, to give an accused a fresh or third option to choose the search authority after the accused has already exercised the statutory choice of being searched before a Magistrate or a Gazetted Officer. The Division Bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Ranjan Sharma dismissed the State's appeal against the acquittal of Ram Lal, from whom police allegedly recovered 350 grams of charas in Kullu in 2013. The court noted that after Ram Lal opted for a search before a Gazetted Officer, he was taken to Manali, 12 km away, instead of Patlikuhal where a Gazetted Officer was available 4-5 km from the spot. The Bench observed that the trial court's acquittal was based on multiple flaws: independent witnesses were not associated, key police witnesses were not examined, and photos of the recovery contradicted the prosecution version on time and place. ## Coverage - livelaw.in Tags: Himachal Pradesh High Court, NDPS Act, section 50, Vivek Singh Thakur Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/hp-high-court-no-third-option-after-accused-picks-gazetted-officer-under-ndps/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/hp-high-court-no-third-option-after-accused-picks-gazetted-officer-under-ndps/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.