Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will introduce the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2021 in the Lok Sabha to correct a drafting error in the 1985 Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
The Act governs certain activities involving narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, such as manufacturing, transporting, and consuming them.
Financing illegal activities such as cannabis cultivation, narcotics manufacturing, or harbouring people involved in these activities is prohibited under the Act.
Those found guilty of this crime will face a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, with the possibility of a longer sentence of up to 20 years, as well as a fine of at least one lakh rupees
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act) was enacted to consolidate and amend the law relating to narcotic drugs, to make stringent provisions for the control and regulation of operations relating to narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, to provide for the forfeiture of property derived from, or used in, illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, and to implement the provisions of the International Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances The NDPS Act was amended three times between 1989 and 2001, and again in 2014.
Prior to the 2014 amendment to the NDPS Act, clause (viii) (a) of section 2 of the said Act contained sub-clauses I to (v) that defined the term “illicit traffic.”
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In a recent judgement, the Hon’ble High Court of Tripura held that ‘until the appropriate legislative change occurs by amending section 27A of the NDPS Act appropriately, sub-clauses I to (v) of clause (viiia) of section 2 of the NDPS Act shall suffer effect of deletion and bringing in sub-clauses I to (v) of clause (viiib) of section 2 of the NDPS Act in that place,’ and directed As a result, in order to ensure that the NDPS Act is correctly interpreted and implemented, it was decided to correct the anomaly in section 27A of the Act by substituting ‘clause (viiib)’ for ‘clause (viiia)’ in section 27A
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Act, 2014, renamed this clause (viii)(b) after inserting a new clause (viii)(a) in section 2 defining “essential narcotic drugs.” However, when the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Act, 2014 amended section 2 of the NDPS Act, an inadvertently consequential change was not made in section 27A of the NDPS Act.
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Because Parliament was not in session and urgent legislation was needed, the President issued the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 (Ord. 8 of 2021) on September 30, 2021, to correct the anomaly by substituting the “clause (viii)(b) of section 2” for “clause (viii)(a) of section 2” in section 27A of the NDPS Act. 5.
The amendment does not create a new offence, but it does contain a legislative declaration that a reference to clause (viii)(a) always meant the corresponding renumbered provision in clause (viii)(b), and the amendment seeks to correct this anomaly by making changes to section 27A of the said Act in order to carry out the legislative intent of the statute, which has always been to read clause (viii)(b) in section 27A, and has already been therein.
Opposing Bill’s introduction, RSP member N K Premachandran demanded thorough scrutiny of the draught legislation, claiming that its absence would result in a “bad law.”