The Chief Justice’s court witnessed some lighter moments today on a matter as serious as the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS Act), when CJI Ranjan Gogoi asked Mr Manoj Swarup, the counsel for the appellant in the case, if he was a trafficker or an addict. Swarup, while replying in the same tone, said: “I’m an addict, I’m before your lordships. If I have to be either of them, I choose to be the lesser one.”

This banter took place when a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices L Nageshwara Rao and Sanjiv Khanna was hearing a batch of petitions challenging a notification issued by the central government under the NDPS Act. The impugned notification notifies the limits of various drugs not in terms of pure drug content but the aggregate weight of the seized substance as a “preparation” if it contained the specified drug. It has earlier been challenged before the Delhi High Court and Punjab & Haryana High Courts as well on the grounds that the NDPS Act does not confer any power upon the central government to vary the parameters of the quantification of the drugs. The bench heard the arguments presented by both parties, and will continue hearing the matter tomorrow.

–India Legal Bureau