By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha on Monday passed the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill amid the Opposition objecting to the retrospective clause in it. Reacting to the Opposition, the Centre said the amendments were seeking only to “correct the errors” in the law as pointed out by judiciary.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Bill doesn’t seek to create fresh retrospective criminal liabilities, with the legislation being just “corrective” in nature and without any substantive amendments to the existing law.
The “error” crept in when the 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, Sitharaman was quoted as saying.
The Opposition MPs had moved a resolution against the introduction and passage of the Bill. BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahatb, who had moved the resolution, insisted on the objection against the retrospective clause. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also objected to the retrospective aspects, lamenting that the Act is being used to harass the people.
