The Lok Sabha today passed the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
After over four hours of discussion, the House passed the bill to replace the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 which was earlier promulgated due to court orders.
After the discussion on the bill, Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman allayed the apprehensions of some opposition members over the intention of bringing the amendment.
The Minister said the bill is not a substantive amendment to the criminal law but it is clarificatory in nature.
She added that the bill does not violate and diminish Article 20 of constitution but respects it in letter and spirit.
The minister said the Bombay and Tripura High court had ordered to amend the notified act retrospectively so it has been brought to correct the obvious mistake committed in the past.
During the discussion, 29 members from different parties participated. Several members expressed their concern about the abuse of drugs among school and college students and youths.
Bhartruhari Mahtab of BJD and Manish Tewari of Congress opposed the bill and asked the government not to notify punishable offenses with retrospective effect.
NK Premachandran of RLP questioned the constitutional validity of the proposed bill. He suggested a comprehensive bill instead and caution while making legislation to avoid loopholes that lead to ramifications.
Janardhan Mishra, Subhash Bhamre and Ratan Lal Kataria of BJP, Dr. ST Hasan of Samajwadi Party, ET Mohammed Basheer of IUML, Aparupa Poddar of Trinamool, AM Ariff of CPI (M), Pratap Chandra Sarangi of BJP, D Ravikumar of DMK and also participated in the discussion.
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