New Delhi, Sep 16 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Friday held that the weight of a neutral substance would not be ignored while determining whether a seized contraband drug is in small or commercial quantity.

The high court's judgement came while answering questions referred to it by a single judge concerning a minuscule percentage of a narcotic substance.

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A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Amit Sharma answered in negative the question “whether in cases specifically related to manufactured drug with a miniscule percentage of a narcotic substance, the weight of the neutral substance ought to be ignored while determining the nature of the quantity seized i.e. small, commercial or in between?”

The division bench said, “If the contraband seized falls within the provisions of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the weight of the neutral substance would not be ignored while determining the nature of the quantity seized, whether small quantity, commercial quantity or in between.”

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The issue came up during the hearing of the bail application of an accused in a case lodged under the provisions of the NDPS Act, in which one of the points that arose for consideration was whether the recovery of 110 bottles of cough syrup 'Phensedyl New' weighing 100 gms each and having a Codeine concentration of 0.17 per cent per bottle would be considered as 'commercial quantity' under the NDPS Act.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)