Three decades on, NDPS Act comes under HC scanner

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 23

More than three decades after the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act came into force, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has taken a critical view of its provisions on fixing a drug’s commercial quantity.

Justice Ajay Tewari has made it clear that the element of dosage has been completely ignored for fixing commercial quantity. Justice Tewari has also impleaded the Union of India through the Regional Director, Narcotics Control Bureau, as a party for eliciting his views. Haryana, too, has been made a party “since it is a larger issue”.

The developments took place after counsel for an accused claimed quantity of contraband, dubbed as commercial, boiled down to 10,000 doses in the case of some drugs, while in others it was as less as 10 doses. The court was also told that an accused caught with “commercial quantity” could actually be just an addict and not a trafficker liable for a 10-year sentence.

Sentencing an accused under the NDPS Act depends on the quantity of drug recovered. The scale of punishment can be anywhere between six months for “small quantity” and more 10-year imprisonment for “commercial quantity”.

The directions came after two applications for suspension of sentence by accused Satish Kumar and Gurmail Singh were placed before the Bench. Their counsel, Arnav Sood and Sandeep Sharma, claimed the recovered quantity could not be termed commercial.

In one of the cases, Sood claimed the alleged recovery comprised 97 injections of buprenorphine. Theoretically speaking the quantity was commercial. But it was just 97 doses from an addict’s point of view.

Justice Tewari asserted: “I find that the NDPS Act has a seriously skewed design for treating different narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances for the purpose of declaration of commercial quantity”.

Justice Tewari added Opium Act, 1878, was the only legislation on the subject prior to the enactment of the NDPS Act. The maximum imprisonment under the Opium Act was three to two years with or without a fine. The present Act, however, specified commercial quantity of opium as 2.5 kg , which could translate into about 10,000 doses.

In the case of rexcof, the commercial quantity started at 1000 mililitres, which came down to 10 doses. Likewise, commercial quantity would not be more than 40 doses for buprenorphine.

Justice Tewari added the element of dosage could not be completely ignored for fixing commercial quantity. “The issue in the present cases is whether in commercial terms the recoveries alleged to have been made are such which could be called commercial and whether the Central Government has acted arbitrarily in fixing the commercial quantity of different narcotic drugs/psychotropic substances?”