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2020 (9) TMI 421 - HC - CustomsSmuggling - import of plant khat - Narcotics drugs or not - only ground raised by the petitioner is that the alleged package was booked prior to the notification i.e., on 24.02.2018. Therefore, no offence can be tried as on the date of booking of the package and the substance was not banned in India - HELD THAT:- In the case on hand, the package was reached the shores of Mumbai on 03.03.2018 and thereafter it reached the Foreign Post Office, Meenambakkam, Chennai on 05.03.2018. Thereafter, on 12.03.2018, the parcel was examined and referred to Postal Appraisal Department. Thereafter only on 27.04.2018, in the presence of two independent witnesses, the officer in-charge taken the parcel for examination and found two pink polythene bags containing khat leaves weighing 7.9 kg, addressed to the petitioner herein. Therefore, the commission of the offence had taken place on 27.04.2018 as such, on the date of commission of offence, the contraband called khat leaves were included as psychotropic substances and the same was notified by the Government of India, Ministry of Finance vide notification No.S.O.821(E), dated 27.02.2018. Reliance was placed in the case of CHIRAG HASMUKHRAI BHOJANI & 1 VERSUS STATE OF GUJARAT & 1 [2018 (5) TMI 2018 - GUJARAT HIGH COURT] where it was held that on the date of commission of the offence, the contraband called khat leaves were not included as psychotropic substances. It is notified only on 27.02.2018 and the khat leaves came to be included under NDPS Act after the notification - the above judgement is not applicable to the case on hand and on the date of commission of offence the contraband called khat leaves were very much included in the list of psychotropic substances under the NDPS Act, 1985. Petition dismissed.
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