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OPIUM ACT, 1857
An Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to the cultivation of the poppy and the manufacture of opium 2[* *]. Preamble.-Whereas the existing law relating to the cultivation of the poppy and the manufacture of opium on account of Government is in some respects inconsistent with the practice which now obtains under agreement between the Opium Agents and the cultivators, and it is expedient that such in- consistency should be removed; And whereas it is also expedient3[* * *] that the laws for preventing the illicit cultivation of the poppy, and for regulating the cultivation of the poppy and the manufacture of opium on account of Government, should be consolidated and amended; It is enacted as follows:- This Act has been declared to be in force throughout the former Province of Bengal and the former North-Western Provinces except the Scheduled Districts by the Laws Local Extent Act, 1874 (15 of 1874),Sections 6and7. It has also been declared to be in force in the Santhal Parganaa (now in Bihar) by Regn. III of 1872, Section 3 (1) and Schedule; and in Oudh (now in Uttar Pradesh), subject to certain modifications by Section 3 (e) of the Oudh Laws Act, 1876 (18 of 1876), and Schedule II. Sections 21to23and25to29of the Act have been declared to be in force in the Central Provinces (Mahakoshal Region of the Madhya Pradesh State): by Sec. 3 of the C. P. Laws Act, 1875 (20 of 1875), and Schedule. It has been declared by notification under the Scheduled Districts Act, 1874 (14 of 1874), 'Section 3, to be in force in- West Jalpaiguri in the Jalpaiguri District (West Bengal): see Gazette of India, 1881, Pt. I, page 74; Kumaon, Garhwal, the Schedule portion of the Mirzapur District and the Taral Parganas (Uttar Pradesh): see Gazette of India, 1879, Pt. I, p. 383. the Districts of Hazaribagh, Ranchi, Palamau and Manbhum, and Pargana Dhal- bhum and the Kolhan and the Porahat Estate in the district of Singhbhum In the Chota Nagpur Division (Bihar): see Gazette of India, 1881, Pt. I, p. 504. The Act has been extended to the new Provinces and merged States by the Merged States (Laws) Act, 1949 (59 of 1949), Section 3(1-1-1950) and to the States of Manipur, Tripura and Vindhya Pradesh by the Union Territories (Laws) Act, 1950 (30 of 1950), Section 3(16-4-1950). Manipur and Tripura are full-fledged States with effect from 21-1-1972. Vindhya Pradesh now forms part of the State of Madhya Pradesh-See Act 37 of 1956, Section 9 (1) (e). It has also been extended to States merged in the State of- Madhya Pradesh: see Madhya Pradesh Act XII of 1950, Section 3 (3-4-1950); Punjab: see Punjab Act V of 1950, Section 3 (15-4-1950). The Act has been now extended to the Union territories of Goa, Daman and Diu by Regn. XII of 1962 (31-3-1963) and to Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands by Regn. VIII of 1965 (1-10-1967). The Act enforced in Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu on 31-1-1963, See Goa Govt. Gaz., 31-1-1963, Sr. I, No. 5 (Supplement) p. 31. It has also been extended to the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli by Notification No. G.S.R. 450 of 1968 published under Sec. 10 of Act 35 of 1961, with effect from 1-4-1968. It extends to Jammu and Kashmir as well-See Section 2 of Act 62 of 1956. The validity of the Act is not affected by the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1930 (11 of 1930), or by the rules made there under: see Section 39 (2) of that Act.
SECTION 01: SHORT TITLE AND EXTENT
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(1) This Act may be called THE OPIUM ACT, 1857.
(2) It extends to the whole of India 5[* * *].]
SECTION 02: PROHIBITION OF POPPY CULTIVATION AND OPIUM MANUFACTURE
[Repealed by the Opium Act, 1878 (1 of 1878)-]
SECTION 03: APPOINTMENT OF OFFICERS TO SUPERINTEND PROVISION OF OPIUM
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(1) The 7[Central Government], after consideration of any recommendation made in this behalf by the 8[State Government] of the 8[State] for which the appointment is to be made, may appoint Opium Agents to superintend the provision of opium for 9[the Central Government].
(2) The 7[Central Government] may appoint officers to assist the Opium Agents, under the designation of Deputy Agents, district opium officers, assistant opium officers, or such other designations as it may think fit and may delegate to the Opium Agents the power of appointing all or any of such officers.
(3) Unless the 7[Central Government], after consideration of any recommendation made by the State Government in this behalf, otherwise directs, the Collector shall be Deputy Agent for his district.
(4) The 7[Central Government] may by rule prescribe the powers and duties of officers appointed under this section.]
SECTION 04: OFFICERS AMENABLE TO CIVIL COURTS
- The Opium Agents, and their sub- ordinate officers of every description, are declared amenable to the Civil Courts for all acts done by them in their official capacity, except as otherwise herein provided. Bar of suit without previous application to agent for redress. But no suit shall be instituted against an Agent, or any subordinate officer, for any act done in his official capacity, unless the person who shall consider himself aggrieved by the act of such Agent or officer shall have first made application for redress to the Agent himself. In the event of such person not being satisfied with the order which the Agent may pass upon his application, it shall then be competent to him either to lay his case by petition before 10[the Central Government], or at once to seek red less in the Civil Court,
SECTION 05: SANCTION TO SUIT BY AGENT
The Opium Agents shall not in their official capacity institute any suit in a Civil Court without the previous sanction of 11[the Central Government].
SECTION 06: POWER OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT TO APPOINT OFFICER TO CONDUCT SUITS
13[The Central Government] may take upon itself, or entrust to an officer specially appointed for the purpose, the superintendence of the prosecution or defence of any suit or appeal in which 13[the Central Government] or an Agent, or any other officer subordinate to 13[the Central Government], may be engaged, instead of leaving such superintendence to the Agent or any other officer.]
SECTION 07: BOARD TO FIX LIMITS OF CULTIVATION AND PRICE TO BE PAID TO CULTIVATORS
14 [* * *] 15[The Central Government] shall from time to time fix the limits with- in which licences may be given for the cultivation of the poppy on account of 15[the Central Government].15[The Central Government] shall from time to time fix the price to be paid to the cultivators for the opium produced. The price shall be fixed at a certain sum per seer of eighty tolas for opium of a certain standard consistence, and shall be subject to a ratable reduction according to a scale sanctioned by 15[the Central Government], for opium of a consistence below the standard.
SECTION 08: ISSUE OF LICENCES
The 16[district opium officers] or other officers en- trusted with the superintendence of the cultivation shall, at the proper period of the year, issue licenses to the cultivators who may choose to engage to cultivate the poppy and to deliver the produce to the officers of 17[the Central Government] at the established rates. What to be specified in license. Every license shall specify the number of bighas which the party engages and is authorized to cultivate, and shall be in such form as the Agent, with the sanction of 17[the Central Government] may direct. A counterpart engagement, in conformity with the tenor of the license, shall be taken from the cultivator.
SECTION 09: CULTIVATOR TO HAVE OPTION TO ENGAGE TO CULTIVATE OR NOT, OFFICERS COMPELLING CULTIVATOR TO ENGAGE LIABLE TO BE DISMISSED
It shall be at the option of every cultivator to enter into engagements for the cultivation of the poppy or not as he may think fit; and any 18[district opium officer] or other officer as aforesaid, or any inferior officer employed in the provision of opium, who shall compel, or use any means to compel, any cultivator to enter into engagements or to receive advances, for the cultivation of the poppy, shall be liable to be dismissed from his situation. District opium officer may withhold license to cultivate. It shall be at the option of the 18[district opium officer] or other officer as aforesaid to withhold a license from any cultivator whenever he may think proper so to do. Appeal. Any person to whom a license has been refused may appeal to the Agent and the decision of the Agent shall be final.
SECTION 10: PENALTY ON CULTIVATOR RECEIVING ADVANCES AND NOT CULTIVATING FULL QUANTITY OF LAND--ADJUDICATION OF PENALTY
If it shall be found that any cultivator who has received advances from the Government has not cultivated the full quantity of land for which he received such advances, he shall be liable to a penalty of three times the amount of the advances received for the land which he has failed to cultivate, and the said penalty may be adjudged by the Deputy Agent or Collector, on the complaint of the 19 [district opium officer] or other officer as aforesaid. Appeal. Any person dissatisfied with this judgment of the Deputy Agent or Collector may appeal to the Agent, and the decision of the Agent shall be final.
SECTION 11: DELIVERY OF OPIUM PRODUCED
All opium the produce of land cultivated with poppy on account of 20[the Central Government], shall be delivered by the cultivators to the 21[district opium officers] or 22[other officers duly authorized to receive such opium], or shall be brought by them to the sadar factory, as the Agent may direct. Opium not liable to distress or attachment-Value thereof may he attached. And no such opium shall he liable to be distained or attached by zamindar or other proprietor, or a farmer of land, for the recovery of arrears of rent, or by any other creditor of a cultivator under any order or decree of Court, but the sum due to the cultivator on account of such opium may be attached by order of Court in the hands of the Agent or 23[other] officer under the rules in force for such attachments.
SECTION 12: Opium to be weighed and classified by district opium officer
- All opium delivered by the cultivators to the 24[district opium officer] or 25[other officer authorized as aforesaid] shall, before it is forwarded to the sadar factory, be weighed, examined and classified according to its quality and consistence by that officer, or his assistant if duly authorized by the Agent in that behalf, in the presence of the cultivators and in conformity with rules sanctioned by 26[the Central Government]. Proceeding where cultivator is dissatisfied with classification. Any cultivator who may be dissatisfied with the classification of the 27[receiving officer] shall be at liberty either to take his opium to the sadar factory, or to have it forwarded together by such officer separate from the opium respecting which no dispute has arisen.
SECTION 13: WEIGHING AND EXAMINATION AT SADAR FACTORY
All opium forwarded by the 28[receiving] officers to the sadar factory, and all Opium delivered at the sadar factory, by the cultivators, shall be there weighed and examined by the Opium Examiner or other officer duly authorized in that behalf, agreeably to rules sanctioned by 29[the Central Government]; and the quality and consistence of the opium, and deductions from or additions (if any) to the standard price to be made in accordance with the said rules, shall be determined by the result of such examination. The decision of the Examiner, or of the Agent in 'cases in which a reference to the Agent may be prescribed by the said rules, shall be final and conclusive, and not open to question in any
Court.
SECTION 14: CONFISCATION OF ADULTERATED OPIUM
When opium delivered by a cultivator, either to a30 [receiving] officer, or at the sadar factory, is suspected of being adulterated with any foreign substance, it shall be immediately seal- ed up pending examination by the Opium Examiner, and notice of such in- tended examination shall be given to the cultivator. Adjudicatum of confiscation. If upon such examination the opium shall be found to be so adulterated. The Agent on the report of he Examiner may order that it be confiscated, and the order of the Agent shall be final and not open to question in any Court.
SECTION 15: WEIGHTS AND SCALES
The weights and scales made use of in the sadar factories and at the district to this shall be provided by 31[the Central Government]. Examination there of every 32[district opium officer] shall annually, before beginning to weigh the opium of the season, examine the weights and scales in use in his district and shall report the result of such examination to the agent. The Agent shall make a similar examination of the weights and scales of the sadar factory, and shall report the result to 31[the Central Government]. No weights or scales shall be made use of which on any such examination have not been found to be strictly accurate. It shall be the duty of all officers who may superintend the weighing of opium to see that the opium is weighed fairly with an even beam; and the practice of taking excess weight for the purpose of turning the scale, or as an allowance for dry age and wastage, is hereby prohibited.
SECTION 16: ADJUSTMENT OF CULTIVATORS' ACCOUNTS AND RECOVERY OF BALANCE BY DISTRESS
The accounts of the cultivators shall be adjusted annually by the 33[district opium officers or other officers duly authorized in this behalf] as soon after the conclusion of the weighing and examination as possible; and any balance that may remain due from any cultivator, or from any method or intermediate manager, may be recovered by the 33[adjusting officer] by distress and sale of the property of the defaulter or of his surety, in -the 'same manner and under the same rules as the property of defaulting cultivators in estates held khas may be distrained and sold by the Collector for the recovery of an arrear of rent or revenue: Sanction to issue of warrant. Provided that no warrant of distress and sale shall be issued by any 33[adjusting officer] without the sanction of the Agent previously obtained.
SECTION 17: PENALTY ON OFFICER TAKING BRIBES
Any officer of the Opium Department who shall receive any fee, gratuity, perquisite or allowance, either in money or effects, under any pretence whatsoever, from any cultivator, or from any other person employed or concerned in the provision of opium, other than the authorized allowances of his situation, shall be dismissed from his office, and, on conviction before a Magistrate, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five hundred rupees.
SECTION 18: EXACTIONS BY LANDHOLDER FROM RAIYAT RECOVERABLE, TOGETHER WITH PENALTY, IN SUMMARY SUIT BEFORE COLLECTOR
If any zamindar or other proprietor of land, or any farmer of land shall exact from any raiyat on account of his poppy land any illegal excess or any higher rate of rent than he is lawfully entitled to demand, the raiyat, or the34[district opium officer] or pother officer duly authorized in this behalf 35,may institute a suit before the Collector, and recover from such proprietor or former the sum exacted by him in excess of his lawful demand, together with a penalty of treble the amount of such excess; and such suit shall be tried according to the rules prescribed for suits instituted before a Collector relating to arrears or exactions of rent.
SECTION 19: PENALTY FOR EMBEZZLEMENT OF OPIUM BY CULTIVATOR
Any cultivator entering into engagements for the cultivation of the poppy on account of 36[the Central Government] who may embezzle or otherwise illegally dispose of, any part of the opium produced shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding ten times the fixed price of the opium which he may be proved to have so disposed of, or to a fine not exceeding five hundred rupees if the amount of the said penalty be less than that sum, and the opium, if found, shall be liable to confiscation.
SECTION 20: PENALTY (OR ILLEGAL PURCHASE OF OPIUM FROM CULTIVATOR
Any person purchasing or receiving any opium from a cultivator or other person who may have entered into engagements for the cultivation of the poppy, or who may be employed in the provision of opium on account of 37[the Central Government], or bargaining for the purchase of opium with such cultivator or person, or in any way causing or encouraging such cultivator or person to embezzle or illegally dispose of any opium and for illegal connivance at embezzlement by opium officer and any officer of the Opium Department conniving in any way at the embezzlement or illegal disposal of any opium, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand rupees, unless the opium purchase, bargained for or illegally disposed of shall exceed the weight of thirty-one seers and a quarter, in which case the fine may be increased, at a rate not exceeding thirty-two rupees per seer for all such opium in excess of that weight; and the opium, if found, shall be liable to confiscation.
SECTION 21: PENALTY FOR UNLICENSED CULTIVATION
Any person who shall cultivate the poppy without license from a38[district opium officer] or other officer duly authorized in that behalf, and any person who shall in any way cause, en- courage or promote such illegal cultivation, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five hundred rupees, unless the quantity of land so illegally cultivated shall exceed twenty bighas, in which case the fine may be at the rate of twenty-five rupees per bigha; and the poppy plants shall be destroyed, or, if any opium have been extracted from them, it shall be seized and confiscated. If the opium shall have been extracted and shall not be seized, the offender shall be liable to a further fine not exceeding the rate of thirty-two rupees per bigha of land illegally cultivated.
SECTION 22: DUTY OF LANDHOLDER AND OTHERS TO GIVE INFORMATION OF ILLEGAL CULTIVATION
All proprietors, farmers, tahsildars, gumashtas and other managers of land shall give immediate information to the police or abkari darogas, or opium gumashtas, or to Magistrates, Collectors or officers in charge of the abkari mahal, or to the agents, their deputies or39 [the district opium officers], of all poppy which may be illegally cultivated within the estates or farms held or managed by them; and every proprietor, farmer, tahsildar, gumashta or other manager of land, who shall knowingly neglect to give such information, shall be liable to the penalties for illegal cultivation prescribed in the last preceding section.
SECTION 23: DUTY OF POLICE AND OTHER OFFICER TO GIVE INFORMATION OF ILLEGAL CULTIVATION
All police and abkari darogas, and opium gumashtas, and all 40[* * *] officers of the Government of whatever description, and all chaukidars, paiks and other village police officers shall give immediate information to the authority to which they are subordinate when it may come to their knowledge that any land has been illegally cultivated with poppy; and such authority shall transmit the information to the 41[district opium officer] or other officer superintending the cultivation of the poppy, if in a district where the poppy is cultivated on account of 42[the Central Government], or to the Collector or officer in charge of the abkari mahal if in a district where the poppy is not so cultivated. Every police or abkari daroga, opium gumashta, 40[* * *] officer, chaukidar or other police officer as aforesaid, who shall neglect to give such information, or shall in any respect connive at the illicit cultivation of the poppy, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand rupees if the offender be an officer of the Opium Department, or in any other case to a fine not exceeding five hundred rupees.
SECTION 24: POLICE OR ABKARI DAROGA HOW TO PROCEED IN CASE OF ILLEGAL CULTIVATION
Whenever a police or abkari daroga or opium gumashta shall receive intelligence of any land within his jurisdiction having been illegally cultivated with poppy, he shall immediately proceed to the spot, and, if the information be correct, shall attach the crop so illegally cultivated, and report the same without delay to the authority to which he may be subordinate. He shall at the same time take security from the cultivator of the said land for his appearance before the Magistrate; and, in the event of such cultivator not giving the required security; he shall send him in custody to the Magistrate.
SECTION 25: LANDHOLDERS, ETC., MAY ATTACH IN CASE OF ILLEGAL CULTIVATION
Proprietors, farmers, tahsildars, gumashtas and other managers of land shall be at liberty to attach any poppy grown in opposition to the provisions of this Act in any estate or farm held or managed by them, and shall immediately re- port such attachment to the nearest police or abkari daroga or opium gumashta, who shall thereupon proceed in conformity with the rules contained in the last preceding section.
SECTION 26: ADJUDICATION OF PENALTIES
Except as otherwise herein provided, all foes, penalties and confiscations prescribed by this Act shall be adjudged by the Magistrate on the information of the Deputy Agent or 43 [district opium officer] in districts in which the poppy is cultivated on account of 44[the Central Government], and in other districts on the information of the Collector or officer in charge of the abkari mahal: Provided that no information of an offence against this Act shall be admitted unless it be preferred within the period of one year after the commission of the offence to which the information refers.
SECTION 27: IMPRISONMENT IN DEFAULT OF PAYMENT OF FINE
When any person is sentenced to pay any fine or penalty under this Act, such person, in default of payment of the same, may be imprisoned by order of the Magistrate for any time not exceeding six months or until the fine is sooner paid.
SECTION 28: PUNISHMENT FOR REPETITION OF OFFENCES
Whenever any person shall be convicted of an offence against this Act after having been previously convict- ed of a like offence, he shall be liable, in addition to the penalty attached to such offence, to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months; and a like punishment of imprisonment not exceeding six months shall be incurred, in addition to the punishment, which may be inflicted for a first offence, upon every subsequent conviction after the second.
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