The Chhattisgarh High Court Monday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) asking the state government to allow hemp cultivation for industrial and medical purposes, calling it a “disaster in the future”.
A bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Bibhu Datta said that the petitioner, “under the garb of” a PIL, was asking for “permitting him (petitioner) cultivation & developing ecosystem of industrial hemp/cannabis, in the interest of Chhattisgarh State,”
In his petition, the petitioner — a Dr. Sachin Kale — asked the government to “define” industrial hemp and “to authorize the growing and possessing of industrial hemp, facilitate the cultivation, processing and use of industrial and medical hemp so that the local people can be benefited through its commercial usage and also are able to avail its medicinal properties”.
The petitioner underlined several benefits of hemp ranging from medicine, economic, social environmental purposes adding the plant has references in holy books and Indian culture even citing a British era report, adding that he approached the court after his representation to the Chhattisgarh government on February 22, 2024, didn’t get a response.
Calling hemp as “Golden Plant” and “New Generation Gold Mines” for farmers of Chhattisgarh, he contended that the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act states mass cultivation of hemp for horticultural and industrial uses is permitted under the Indian law, and that state government has the power to decide the limits within which licences may be given.
Despite that, he argued, no regulation has been made by the government to facilitate medical or industrial use of the plant. To make his case, he cited the examples of states Uttarakhand, which in 2018, become the first state in India to legalise the cultivation of industrial hemp for commercial use, and Himachal Pradesh.
“Uttarakhand has issued detailed guidelines on the cultivation of Industrial Hemp and Himachal Pradesh has constituted the committee for investigation & possibility of cultivation of Industrial Hemp,” he said.
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The bench, however, did not buy the argument. Calling the petition a misuse of judicial process, the bench said courts cannot direct the government to make policy decisions — particularly on sensitive subjects such as narcotic control.
The consumption of cannabis is a matter of grave concern, it said, adding: “The consumption of narcotic and psychotropic substances in the State of Chhattisgarh has increased manifolds in the recent years and it not only has evil effects on the body and mind of the person consuming it, but it ruins the entire family and society as well”.
