The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Act, 2021 has received the assent of the President on the 29th December, 2021. Prior to the amendment of 2014 in the NDPS Act, clause (viiia) of section 2 of the said 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’ was inserted. However, inadvertently consequential change was not carried out in section 27A of the NDPS Act, at the time of amendment in section 2 by the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Act, 2014.
In a recent judgment, Hon’ble High Court of Tripura, in the case of Court on its Own Motion vs The Union of India has held that ‘until the appropriate legislative change occurs by amending section 27A of the NDPS Act appropriately, the NDPS Act shall suffer effect of deletion and directed to take appropriate steps for amendment as required in
section 27A. Hence, with a view to have correct interpretation and implementation of the NDPS Act, it was decided to rectify the anomaly in section 27A of the Act by substituting ‘clause (viiib)’ in place of ‘clause (viiia)’ in section 27A.
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 is hereby repealed.
