PATNA: The Patna High Court has granted bail to a man held under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act over the seizure of codeine-based cough syrup, while criticising police for routinely booking such cases under the stringent NDPS Act instead of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
Justice Ashok Kumar Pandey, hearing the bail plea of Bharat Kumar in an NDPS case registered at Chautham police station in Bihar's Khagaria district, said it was "very strange" that police invariably filed NDPS cases over codeine cough syrup even when the drug's concentration fell within limits permitted by the Centre.
"Cough syrup containing codeine is only a Schedule-H drug for which the shopkeeper has to maintain a register and he must be a licensed one. Such type of cases should be filed under the Drugs and Cosmetic Act. It is only the violation of the Drugs and Cosmetic Act, whereas the police is invariably misusing the procedure," the court said in its October 1 order.
Kumar was arrested in May after 484 litres of Cough Linctus RJT-SCEN syrup containing codeine was recovered from a pick-up van. His counsel, advocate Vijay Kishore Bharti, told the court that Kumar was only standing near the vehicle and had no connection to the seizure, that he had no criminal antecedents, and that a co-accused in the same case had already been granted bail.
The defence relied on a November 14, 1985 Central government notification under the NDPS Act, which exempts codeine preparations from being treated as manufactured drugs if they contain no more than 100 milligrams of the narcotic per dosage unit and a concentration not exceeding 2.5%. The court noted the seized syrup's codeine content was below that threshold.
The state, represented by Additional Public Prosecutor Surendra Prasad Singh, opposed bail, citing the Supreme Court's ruling in Hira Singh vs Union of India, which held that the entire weight of a mixture containing a narcotic drug -- not just the narcotic content -- must be counted while deciding if a seizure amounts to a commercial quantity, which would otherwise bar bail under Section 37 of the NDPS Act.
The court held that this did not apply here, since the preparation itself did not qualify as a narcotic drug under the exemption, so the question of commercial quantity did not arise. It granted Kumar bail on a bond of Rs 10,000 with two sureties of the like amount.