Commercial Quantity of LSD on Blotter Papers: Rajasthan High Court Refuses Bail Under Section 37 NDPS

The applicant, an engineering student who shared a hostel room, was arrested on a Narcotics Control Bureau complaint under Sections 8/20 and 8/22 of the NDPS Act and had been in custody since 23.03.2025 (paras 1-2). He sought bail under Section 483 BNSS, submitting that the quantity was small, that 28 blotter papers had been included to make it look commercial, and that Section 52A had not been complied with (para 2). The Advocate General and counsel for the Union of India submitted that 0.31 gram of LSD and 6.1 gram of ganja were recovered, that a commercial quantity attracts Section 37, and that the blotter paper is not a package but part and parcel of the LSD (para 3).

The Court recorded that it had considered the rival submissions, the record and the judgment cited at the Bar (para 4). Its reasons are set out in a single paragraph. It took into account that the "quantity as alleged is commercial in nature", the provisions of Section 37, the statutory definitions of small and commercial quantity, and the cited paragraphs of the Bombay High Court Full Bench judgment in H.S. Arun Kumar v. State of Goa (para 5). Those paragraphs, reproduced in the order, hold that a blotter paper forms an integral part of LSD when the drug is put on it for consumption, that the blotter is a preparation, mixture or neutral substance, and that the combined weight of the LSD and the blotter, not the weight of pure LSD alone, determines small or commercial quantity (para 3). Looking to the overall facts and material on record, and "without commenting on merits/demerits of the case", the Court was not inclined to grant bail (para 5). The order does not separately discuss the Section 52A objection, the applicant's age or the two decisions relied on for him (paras 2, 5).