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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

When marijuana is banned, why does bhang get a free pass?

It is worth asking whether there is a case to decriminalise marijuana or, at the very least, treat it very differently from other drugs.

Last week, the Jharkhand High Court acquitted a man who had been sentenced by a lower court to seven years in prison and slapped with a heavy fine under the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. The facts relating to the case, or the factual matrix if you prefer ossified legalese, were not in doubt.

The man was apprehended carrying 11 kg of marijuana packed neatly in 12 polythene bags in a briefcase. He fled when apprehended and had to be chased down and caught. His successful appeal in the High Court rested on a single ground. Yes, of course he was carrying marijuana, but his neat little packets did not contain either ganja (the flowering or fruiting tops of the cannabis plant) or charas (the resin from the plant), but bhang (the seeds and leaves unaccompanied by the tops). As the High Court pointed out, ganja leaves and seeds are excluded from the definition of ganja in Section 2 (iii) of the NDPS Act; also, nowhere does this stringent legislation refer to bhang as a prohibited drink or drug.

People will take away from this judgment what they will. One narrowly legal response is that the NDPS Act contains a serious loophole which is exploited time and again; unsurprisingly, there are judicial precedents that have relied on the same reasoning.

An illogical exemption

I am unsure how many Indians are aware of this fine legal distinction between flowering tops and leaves and seeds. But if you studied in Delhi University........

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