Various Opposition members in Lok Sabha on Monday questioned the retrospective penal provision in the NDPS bill which seeks to rectify an anomaly, saying the amendments will not hold good in courts. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman moved for consideration and passage the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2021, saying the amendments proposed only seek to correct certain "clerical error". She said the bill, has a very limited purpose and seeks to achieve "nothing more".
The anomaly crept in when the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was amended in 2014 to allow better medical access to narcotic drugs, and removing state barriers in transporting and licensing of essential narcotic drugs. Prior to the 2014 amendment, clause (viiia) of Section 2 of the Act, contained sub-clauses (i) to (v), wherein the term 'illicit traffic' had been defined. This clause was re-lettered as clause (viiib) by the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Act, 2014, as a new clause (viiia) in section 2 defining 'essential narcotic drugs'.
However, inadvertently, consequential change was not carried out in section 27A of the NDPS Act, Finance Minister Sitharaman was quoted as saying in the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the bill. BJD's Bhartruhari Mahtab, Manish Tewari (Congress), Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena) and Supriya Sule (NCP) were among those who opposed the retrospective effect the government seeks to give to the provision, saying according to law, criminal provisions cannot be brought into force on a retrospective basis.
Mahtab opposed the bill calling it "illegal" and said it suffers from "incongruity" and
contended that the law cannot be amended to include provisions with their "retrospective effect" in criminal cases. "You are making another mistake to correct a mistake committed in the past. It will be challenged in the court of law," the BJD member said, stressing that amending the provisions of the NDPS Act with their retrospective effect would lead to "double jeopardy".