Drug Users Are Victims, Focus Should Be On Breaking Supply Chain Rather Than Punishing Them: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has observed that the persons who are at the last stage of the narcotics supply chain should not be dealt with merely as offenders, cautioning that their prosecution and incarceration pending trial may have adverse consequences by exposing them to associations that could draw them deeper into the drug trade.

“Prosecuting such victims can have a spiralling effect and incarceration pending trial, can lead to more disastrous consequences of the victim joining the supply chain, by reason only of associations developed in prisons.”, observed a bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice K. Vinod Chandran, emphasising that the focus of law enforcement should be on curbing the availability of narcotics and dismantling the supply chain, rather than merely punishing users.

“Curbing availability and breaking the supply chain shall be the focus and not merely punishing the user, who is actually the victim.”, the Court said.

The aforesaid observation came while quashing the prosecution under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, against a woman, who was accused of receiving a packet of marijuana from two alleged sellers near an educational institution.

The accused woman was arrayed as the fourth accused in the NDPS case. According to the prosecution, she approached two persons near a college and received a cover containing marijuana, which she placed in her bag. The police apprehended all three, while the two alleged sellers were found carrying a larger quantity of marijuana in their Scooty.

However, no contraband had been recovered from the woman or her bag, as confirmed by the police officers' statements. Moreover, the case against her was substantially rested on statements attributed to the co-accused and her alleged confession.

Noting that the entire case was rested on the co-accused's testimony and the accused's own confessional statements, the Court held that continuing the prosecution would serve no useful purpose in the circumstances of the case.

“Trite is the principle that no confession can be relied on. The contraband also having not been recovered from the appellant, we are of the opinion that there would be no useful purpose served in carrying out a prosecution against the appellant.”, the Court observed. 

The Court expressed the concern that criminal prosecution and pre-trial incarceration of alleged drug users, i.e., the appellant, may be counterproductive where they are themselves victims of the supply chain. The Court stressed the need to target the availability and distribution of narcotics rather than focus merely on punishing users.

As a result, the appeal was allowed.

Appearance:

For Petitioner(s) :Mr. Dinesh Kothari, Adv. Mr. B.s. Randhawa, Adv. Mr. Gopal Singh Chauhan, Adv. Mr. Harsh Gupta, Adv. Ms. Goldy Goyal, AOR

For Respondent(s) :Ms. Devina Sehgal, AOR Mr. Srikanth Varma Mudunuru, Adv. Mr. Yatharth Kansal, Adv.