The Madras High Court has ruled that possession of commercial quantity of psychotropic drugs by people who are neither importers nor exporters or manufacturers is punishable under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
Justice P N Prakash of the court's Madurai bench gave the ruling while dismissing the bail pleas of Sankareswaran and Kaliyugakannan from whom the Narcotics Control Bureau seized 7.22 kg of Alprazolam (a sleep inducing drug given for blood pressure patients) at Thalavaipuram bus stand in Virudhunagar district.
"They are neither importers nor exporters or manufacturers to possess commercial quantity of the drug. Alprazolam is a psychotropic substance under section 22 of NDPS Act, and they could possess it only if they had a licence for import or export or manufacture," the judge said.
The Act empowered the central government to fix the small and commercial quantity of any drug, both Narcotic and Psychotrophic substance for purpose of deciding the quantum of punishment on conviction by court.
"In this case, the petitioners possessed 7.22 kg of Alprazolam, which was commercial quantity. Therefore, punishable with minimum sentence of ten years," the court observed.
Referring to an earlier judgment of the court that if the contraband was Alprazolam, then it would not attract the NDPS Act for punishment, the judge said the 2007 judgment ignoring the description of small quantity and commercial quantity was undoubtedly Per Incuriam (through lack of care).
