Nishka Srinivas Veluvali
Published On: January 19, 2022 at 17:44 IST
On January 19, 2022, the Delhi High Court released a Notice to the Central Government with regard to the Petition questioning the two notifications about elaborating the Drugs definition stated under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued the Notice to the Central Government demanding their response by February 28.
Rajeev TM, one of the Petitioner argued that the Central Government had issued two notifications in 2001 and 2009 as per Section 2 (vii)(a) and 2 (xxii)(a) of the NDPS Act, constructively giving place to a new category of Offence by charging Penalty for preparing the Drug at par with the Drug itself.
The Plea asserted that these notifications create a bifurcation of Drug users and quantities on the basis of their total weight (inclusive of the neutral material) and not the weight of the pure Drug content, which technically should be the check point of whether the Drug quantity is for commercial use or small quantity intended for personal use.
The Petition states, “If the notifications are applied, 4 grams of Heroin would be a small quantity, but if an addict mixes them with 50 kgs of powdered sugar then the same would be a commercial quantity that has ramifications as grave as Incarceration up to 20 years. The application of the notifications creates a situation where there would be no rational nexus between this aforesaid objective of rationalizing sentencing by taking a reformative approach towards treating addicts and the proposed classification which places both addicts and drug traffickers on even footing as long as the addict dilutes their drug more than the trafficker”.
The Petitioner further added that the notifications endorsed the Criminalisation of ownership of Drugs if the mentioned Drug is mixed with enough neutral substance.
“Whereas as per the NDPS Act a person would be Criminalized at the level of small quantity for possession of, say, 4 grams of Heroin, the notifications enhance this Criminalization to the level of commercial quantity (which increases the incarceration to as much as 20 years) if the said 4 grams of Heroin is diluted by the addition of a neutral material”, submitted the Petitioner.
The Petitioner informed the Court that the NDPS Act deals only with pure Narcotic Drugs for determining the quantities and therefore the notifications issued by the Central Government are wrong.
These notifications are also considered as Violation to Article 14 and Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.
Also read: Important provisions of NDPS Act