Justice Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal held that the statutory exemption granted to codeine preparations below Entry 35 of the Central Authorities Notification dated November 14, 1985, is strictly conditional upon the formulation being dealt with for bona fide therapeutic functions.
The Court docket clarified that the second such medicinal preparations are diverted to illicit provide chains for substance abuse, they lose statutory immunity and should be categorized as “manufactured medicine” below Part 2(xi) of the NDPS Act.
“Codeine-based cough syrup having permitted amount of codeine, manufactured or produced as a cough suppressant, if stocked, offered or transported for different functions (like intoxication) as an alternative of medicinal use, can be handled as a codeine preparation below the class of Manufactured drug and would appeal to the provisions of the NDPS Act. The whole combination of syrup shall be handled as codeine in view of the judgment of the Hon’ble Apex Court docket in Hira Singh’s case,” the Court docket mentioned.
Invoking the landmark Supreme Court docket ruling in Hira Singh vs Union of India, the Excessive Court docket reiterated that in circumstances involving illicit trafficking of narcotic mixtures, the load of your entire formulation, not merely the pure codeine content material, should be thought-about to judge industrial amount.
“In such circumstances, if the entire amount of codeine recovered within the type of codeine-based cough syrup is discovered to be above 1 kg, which is a industrial amount as per the desk hooked up to the NDPS Act, the embargo below part 37 of the NDPS Act can be attracted,” the Court docket mentioned.
