Srinagar, Aug. 20 -- Srinagar - Describing the circumstances as a rare case that "shocks the judicial conscience", the High Court of J&K and Ladakh has ordered a probe into the disappearance of a drug sample that failed to reach the Central Drugs Laboratory, Kolkata, for nearly eight years, directing the Drug Controller, J&K, to constitute a committee to fix responsibility for the lapse and examine whether any official had a role in preventing the sample from reaching the laboratory.

The direction by a bench of Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal came while quashing criminal proceedings against pharmaceutical company Albert David Limited, observing that the case "shocks the judicial conscience" as the sample had not reached the laboratory despite...