Himachal Pradesh High Court organises workshop on 'Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act'

The Himachal Pradesh High Court in collaboration with the State Legal Services Authority and the Himachal Pradesh Judicial Academy on Sunday organized a one-day Workshop on 'Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act' here.

The Himachal Pradesh High Court in collaboration with the State Legal Services Authority and the Himachal Pradesh Judicial Academy on Sunday orgzed a one-day Workshop on 'Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act' here.

The Workshop was inaugurated by the Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh L Narayana Swamy. Judges of Himachal Pradesh High Court, Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan, Justice Vivek Singh Thakur, Justice Sandeep Sharma, Justice Chander Bhusan Barowalia, and Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua also graced the occasion.

Addressing the event, Swamy said, "Drug abuse is a social evil and is a global phenomenon. Drug abuse cannot be eradicated by finding faults with the stakeholders or by shifting the responsibilities but by understanding each other's problems and then making an effort to combat the problem."

Referring to Article 47 of the Constitution of India, the Chief Justice said, "It is the duty of the state to bring about prohibition of the consumption of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health."

He further said that the pendency of old NDPS Act cases in the Courts, reveals some loopholes in the investigation, which prevents the speedy and effective disposal of these cases.

"About 6232 cases of NDPS Act are pending in the state, which though is not a large number, but lakhs of innocent drug victims are suffering due to these. The NDPS Act, 1985 was enacted with stringent provisions to curb this menace and various other Acts have also been passed in this regard, but merely passing enactments is not sufficient," he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan said, "Some effective and stringent steps need to be taken against the drug mafias to give a message to the society that these drug mafias cannot build castles by destroying homes of innocent people."

Chauhan expressed concern over the fire like the spread of drug menace and involvement of young girls and juveniles in the sale and consumption of drugs and said that if this continues, it will be the end of society.

The District and Sessions Judges of all the 11 Civil and Sessions Divisions in the state, Deputy Commissioners, Superintendents of Police and three Public Prosecutors each of Districts Shimla, Kangra at Dharamshala, Kullu, Mandi, Una and Chamba participated in the Workshop.

The Workshop was orgzed keeping in view the high and ever-increasing pendency of cases under the NDPS Act, in the Civil and Sessions Divisions, Shimla, Kangra at Dharamshala, Kullu, Mandi, Una and Chamba.

The objective of the Workshop was to evolve a strategy to end this menace and to highlight and solve the problems being faced by different stakeholders while dealing with cases under the NDPS Act.

( With inputs from ANI )