OPIUM.
No. 30 of 1923.
2783
(3) No person shall delay or obstruct any detention, arrest, search, inspection, seizure, or removal, which is authorised by this Ordinance.
(4) Any authority given by the Superintendent under this section may be given to an individual or to a class, and may be-
(a) general, so as to embrace all the powers referred to in this section; or
(b) limited, so as to embrace only a portion of those powers; or
(c) particular, for a particular occasion.
32. If any search made under this Ordinance is unsuccessful and there is no reason to suppose that any opium liable to forfeiture under this Ordinance has been thrown away or otherwise disposed of in order to avoid detection, the Superintendent shall make good any damage caused thereby.
Compensation for unsuccessful search to be paid by Superintendent. No action shall be maintainable in respect of any such damage. In the event of any dispute as to the fact or amount of any damage, the dispute shall in every case be decided by the Superintendent or by some person nominated by him for that purpose.
Miscellaneous.
33. In any proceedings before a magistrate or on appeal to the Supreme Court relating to the seizure of any opium, implements, or other articles, the seizure whereof is authorised by any of the provisions of this Ordinance, it shall be lawful for such magistrate and for the judges, and they are hereby respectively required, to proceed in such cases on the merits only, without reference to matters of form and without inquiring into the manner or form of making any seizure, excepting in so far as the manner and form of seizure may be evidence on such merits.
34.-(1) Except as hereinafter mentioned, no information laid under this Ordinance shall be admitted in evidence in any civil or criminal proceeding, and no witness shall be obliged to disclose the name or address of any informer or to state any matter which might lead to his discovery, and if any books, documents or papers which are in evidence or liable to inspection in any civil or criminal proceeding
Rules as to secrecy of information and protection of informers.
Page 15
Page 16