By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Sep 28: Chief Justice of High Court of Meghalaya, Sanjib Banerjee, on Thursday said that in his initial days of going around the state, he did not sense the seriousness in various stakeholders, however in the last 8-10 months; he has seen a difference and the zeal of everyone to work towards tackling the drug menace in the state.
The Chief Justice said this while addressing a gathering at a workshop on ‘The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985’, organised by the High Court of Meghalaya and Meghalaya State Judicial Academy in collaboration with Law department, Social Welfare department and Meghalaya Police, in the Auditorium of the High Court.
The workshop had in attendance the Rangbah Shnongs, police personnel, advocates, educational institutions and various stakeholders to address the problem of rising drug abuse in the state.
In his address, Chief Justice Banerjee said that only now police personnel understand what the judiciary is looking for when it comes to convicting drug peddlers because there are a lot of statutory probations.
He added, “Judges need to comply with, a judge is slave to the stature, and the judicial precedence that interprets the stature, no matter how much you think the the judges have a lot of discretion, but the discretion is very limited.”
