Any Metropolitan Magistrate, Judicial Magistrate of the first class or any Magistrate specially empowered in this behalf by the State Government1[or any officer of a gazetted rank empowered under section 42] may order attachment of any opium poppy, cannabis plant or coca plant which he has reason to believe to have been illegally cultivated and while doing so may pass such order (including an order to destroy the crop) as he thinks fit.
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1. Inserted by Act 2 of 1989, section 13 (w.e.f. 29-5-1989).