Legally
India: Mumbai: Thursday, 23 April 2015.
Advocate
Aditya Barthakur has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Bombay
high court challenging the criminalisation of cannabis under Indian law, based
on the fact that none of six government organs he queried had any idea about
how the herb is harmful to the human body.
The high
court has issued notices to the central and state governments, reported the
Express.
Barthakur
last year filed a Right to Information (RTI) request seeking medical or
scientific reasons for how the consumption of Cannabis in any form is harmful
to humans.
He filed this
request first with the ministry of health and family welfare from where it
travelled, through transfer by the departnment, to the department of health
research, the Indian Council of Medical Research and finally to the national
institute of nutrition which replied to Barthakur with an excerpt, allegedly,
copy-pasted from the website of the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration of New Jersey.
Barthakur
then filed an RTI with the same query with the legislative department of the
law ministry, which transferred it to the department of revenue which replied
to Barthakur with the word "NIL".
Barthakur
also filed an RTI on the same query with the Law Commission of India next,
which transferred it to the ministry of health and family welfare from where it
once again followed the same transfer route as before, until it landed with the
home ministry which forwarded it to one of its divisions (an "IS-II
division").
Barthakur
also filed the same RTI with the Central Bureau of Narcotics, adding in it the
further query that what is the basis of the law prohibiting Cannabis under the
NDPS Act 1985 if there are no medical or scientific reasons as were asked for.
The Bureau replied to him with a reproduction of the NDPS Act provisions
criminalising Cannabis.
He then filed
the criminal writ petition making all the queried government organs respondents
alongwith the union of India and the state of Maharashtra. In the writ petition
Bathakur produces research, such as British Commission reports containing
mythological texts which note the medical and other benefits of the Cannabis
plant, including curing cancer.
The
34-year-old lawyer, who is appearing in person in the writ petition, concluded
it with an Atharvaveda Sloka:
To the five
kingdoms of the plants which Soma rules as Lordwe speak.Darbha, hemp, barley,
mighty power: may these deliver us from woe
He prayed
in his petition:
The Hon’ble
Court be pleased to declare, the defining and penal provisions, in relation to
Cannabis, of The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, and
inclusion of Cannabis in Schedule I, Entry (2) of The Narcotic Drugs and
Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, and inclusion of Cannabis at Sl. No. 23 in
Notification Specifying Small Quantity and Commercial Quantity, dated
19.10.2001, published in the Gazette of India, for the purposes of Section 2
(viia) and 2 (xxiiia) of The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act,
1985, and, inclusion of Cannabis in National Policy on Narcotic Drugs and
Psychotropic Substances, as being, unjust, and, ultra vires, the provisions of
Constitution of India, 1950, and
The Hon’ble
Court be pleased to direct, the defining and penal provisions, in relation to
Cannabis, of The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, and
inclusion of Cannabis in Schedule I, Entry (2) of The Narcotic Drugs and
Psychotropic Substances Act, and 1985, and inclusion of Cannabis at Sl. No. 23 in
Notification Specifying Small Quantity and Commercial Quantity, dated
19.10.2001, published in the Gazette of India, for the purposes of Section 2
(viia) and 2 (xxiiia) of The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act,
1985, and, inclusion of Cannabis in National Policy on Narcotic Drugs and
Psychotropic Substances, be suitably amended for being, unjust, and, ultra
vires, the provisions of Constitution of India, 1950, and,
That as an
interim relief the operation of every provision in relation to Cannabis in The
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, and Notification
Specifying Small Quantity and Commercial Quantity, dated 19.10.2001,
contravention of which is a unjustified penal offence, be suspended until the
final hearing and disposal of this Public Interest Litigation.
Cannabis
currently occupies an uncertain position under Indian criminal law, which
allows certain forms of it to be consumed, also during religious festivals such
as Holi.