Govt relieved as Rajasthan HC bans sale of poppy husk, opium

Gurdeep Singh Mann

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 30

In a significant development, the Rajasthan High Court at Jaipur today banned the sale of poppy husk and opium in Rajasthan following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a Chandigarh based NGO.

This will bring welcome relief for the Punjab Government, which had been protesting the open sale of these drugs in Rajasthan.

Harman Singh Sidhu, president of NGO ArriveSAFE, had filed the PIL in Rajasthan High Court, seeking that Rajasthan government’s policy of selling poppy husk and opium openly be changed.

The Division Bench of Chief Justice Ambwani and BL Sharma also ordered to put in abeyance the recently allotted Rs 100 crore contract of poppy and opium vends in Rajasthan.

Earlier, the case came up for hearing on 7, April 2015, following which a notice to the respondents—Union of India, State of Rajasthan, Excise Controller, Rajasthan Commissioners of Central Bureau of Narcotics at Kota, Rajasthan and Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh was issued.

Harman had pleaded that under rule 45 of the Rajasthan Narcotics Drugs and psychotropic substance rules, the possession of Lanced Poppy Husk (LPH) was permitted on medical grounds for required quantity only. But with the passage of time the sale of this drug assumed alarming proportions without any check. The open sale of this drug also lured thousands of drug addicts from Punjab to visit Rajasthan. “People had been contesting the open sale of poppy husk and opium in Rajasthan in court for the past several years. The first petition in this regard was filed in 1985 and the fresh move was made by the Chandigarh-based NGO ArriveSAFE,” senior advocate Anil Mehta told The Tribune over the phone.

He said this was the first breakthrough against the sale of drugs in Rajasthan. Now the LPH would only be available at government hospitals.

The relaxation of getting these drugs through a doctor’s prescription will be implemented till March 31, 2016. The court ordered that thereafter, the LPH supply would be reduced gradually and then stopped. Harman said, “Today’s order will bring a drastic change in the sale and purchase of this drug in Punjab as well.”