Recently, the Supreme Court of India has granted bail to the man accused of supplying Ganga seeds. A division bench of Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice Manoj Misra held that definition of "ganja" under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 does not include ganja seeds.

“The materials on record show that the petitioner has supplied Ganja seed for cultivation and as per the definition of Ganja in Section 2(iii)(b) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS Act), it is not a banned contraband. There are no specific allegations that the Ganja seeds were supplied by the petitioner to the other person with an intention to receive back the grown Ganja after cultivation.”, the bench said. 

In the said matter, the Petitioner approaches Supreme Court challenging the orders of the Gujarat High Court in which the bench denied bail to him. Adv. Somesh Chandra Jha appearing for the petitioners said that the matter pertained to ganja seeds which would not come under the purview of the NDPS Act. The Counsel for the petitioner argued that under Section 2(iii)(b) of the NDPS Act, the definition of ‘cannabis’ does not include ganja seeds.

The definition of "ganja" as per the NDPS Act is as follows :

"ganja is, the flowering or fruiting tops of the cannabis plant (excluding the seeds and leaves when not accompanied by the tops), by whatever name they may be known or designated"