Supreme Court Leaves Open Whether 2001 NDPS Amendment Applies to Pending Appeals, Frees Convict After Almost Ten Years

On 7 September 1996 Delhi police, acting on secret information, found 22 kg of poppy straw powder in the respondent's jute bag and 23 kg with another man (para 2). The trial court convicted the respondent under Section 18 and imposed the minimum ten years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1 lakh (paras 3-4). Before the High Court the conviction went unchallenged; relying on Section 41 of the 2001 Amendment Act, which put commercial quantity of poppy husk at 50 kg, the defence said ten years was now the maximum, not the minimum (para 5). The High Court applied the amendment, cut the sentence to 5½ years served and freed him (paras 5-6); the State appealed (para 7).

The State's case was that the High Court should not have applied Section 41 of the 2001 Amendment Act, because its proviso says that nothing in the section shall apply to cases pending in appeal (para 10). The amicus curiae for the respondent supported the High Court's view and, in the alternative, asked that the appeal be disposed of leaving the question open, since the respondent had undergone about ten years (para 12). The respondent was arrested on the day of the incident, 7 September 1996, and stayed in jail until the High Court's order of 2 April 2002, more than 5½ years (para 13). After the State's petition he was arrested again on 23 September 2003, and although this Court granted bail, he could not meet its conditions and remained in jail, so he had been in jail for about ten years (paras 8, 13). Taking the totality of these facts into account, the Court held that the ends of justice would be met by disposing of the appeals without expressing a final opinion on the question of law (para 14). The question would be decided on its own merits in an appropriate case (para 14).