Male officers cannot frisk women: SC

Male officers cannot frisk women for the purpose of confiscating contraband materials like narcotics as it is illegal and would render the prosecution's case invalid, the Supreme Court has held.
    
The apex court said any personal search of a woman by male officers is violative of Sub-section 4 of Section 50 of the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act.

"Personal search of the accused was conducted by DSP Baldev Singh which as indicated herein before was violative of the provisions of Sub-section 4 of Section 50 of the Act," a three-judge bench of Justices SB Sinha, Mukundakam Sharma and HL Dattu observed.
    
Search of women if any can be conducted only by women personnel, the apex court said.
    
The bench passed the ruling while dismissing an appeal filed by Punjab Government challenging the acquittal order passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in favour of an old lady Gurnam Kaur and her daughters-in law--Ranjit Kaur and Gurjit Kaur.
    
A sessions court had convicted the trio for possessing narcotic substances and sentenced them to 12 years rigorous imprisonment.

However, on an appeal the High Court acquitted the accused on the ground that there were several infirmities in the prosecution's case, besides holding as illegal the search of the women by male officers.

The State then filed an appeal in the apex court.
    
The three women were arrested by the police, who claimed that they recovered heroin and opium from their house at Thatha village in Amritsar district and DSP Baldev Singh claimed to have personally conducted the search of the trio.
    
It was claimed that the trio were searched when they were sitting together on a cot and the contraband was recovered from beneath it.

As an afterthought the authorities claimed that a lady ASI Rajinder Kaur was also involved in the search operation and hence the requirement of having the women searched by a woman officer was fulfilled.
    
However, the argument found no favour with the apex court, which noted that Rajinder Kaur was introduced only to cover up the lapses by the prosecution.

"Respondent Gurnam Kaur admittedly is an old lady. Respondent Nos 2 and 3 are her daughters-in-law. Curiously all of them were found sitting on the same bed beneath whereto the contraband had allegedly been kept.
    
"That by itself does not establish that all of them were in conscious possession of the narcotics, " the apex court observed.

Hence, it dismissed the State government's appeal.