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Hira Singh & Anr. v. Union of India & Anr.

Criminal Appeal · 2017 INSC 583Decided 3 Jul 2017
Criminal Appeal No. 722 of 2017
Justice Dipak Misra · Justice A.M. Khanwilkar

Background

This is a referral order, not a final judgment. The case concerned a challenge to a 2009 central government notification, inserting Note 4, that changed how the quantity of a seized narcotic substance is calculated for sentencing. The issue was whether quantity is measured by the weight of the pure drug content alone, as a two-Judge Bench held in E. Micheal Raj v. Intelligence Officer, NCB, or by the weight of the whole mixture including neutral material.

Decision Breakdown

This is a referral order, not a final judgment. The Court held that the question touched the correctness of a binding two-Judge precedent and was of seminal public importance. It directed that the matters be placed before a Bench of at least three Judges for an authoritative pronouncement and set out five questions for that Bench. The Registry was directed to place the matter before the Chief Justice of India, and the appeal itself was not decided.

Lesson Learnt

There is no final ruling yet on whether drug quantity for sentencing is measured by pure narcotic content or by the whole mixture.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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