We kid you not this is occupying the minds of lawyers, the judiciary and most of the mainstream media in India this week!
The Hindustan Times reports
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has held that the weight of blotter paper will be considered part of contraband seizure and the paper ought to be included while weighing Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) for prosecution under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The HC on Monday set aside the special NDPS court order of April 2021 wherein it had directed the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to reweigh the 31 blotter papers weighing around 0.62 gms containing LSD dots that were seized from alleged drug peddler Anuj Keshwani to determine the actual quantity of the drug present sans the blotter paper.
The single-judge bench of justice Revati Mohite Dere while hearing the appeal filed by the NCB against the special NDPS court order had been informed by additional solicitor general ASG Anil Singh and advocate Shriram Shirsat that as the blotter paper was also consumed along with the drug its weight had to be taken into consideration too.
Justice Revati Mohite Dere
The ASG had referred to an apex court judgement in Hira Singh vs Union of India case wherein the weight of the mixture of drugs had to be considered along with the neutral substance and not just its pure form.
However, advocate Rizwan Merchant and Gayatri Gokhale argued on behalf of Keshwani that the 0.62 grams seized from their client included the weight of blot paper, along with LSD dots. Merchant had argued that the blotter paper was not a mixture as regarded by the SC judgement and the FSL report had not stated the weight of 31 blot papers. As per the NDPS Act, 1985, the commercial quantity for LSD is 0.1 grams.
In light of this submission by Merchant, the special court had directed the NCB to resend the 31 blotter papers to FSL Gujarat to ascertain the actual weight of the LSD seized from Keshwani. In September 2020, Keshwani had been arrested by the NCB and a total of 585 grams of charas, 270.12 grams of ganja, 3.6 grams of Tetrahydrocannabinol and 0.62 grams of LSD were recovered and seized from him.
