Drug use in movies: Actors can't be booked, rules Kerala high court

KOCHI: An actor who is seen using drugs in a movie cannot be booked for substance abuse as it cannot be assumed that he or she had actually used the drugs, the Kerala High Court has held. If such reasoning is adopted, actors in villainous roles would have to be booked for murder, arson, or rape, the court added.
The ruling was given by justice VG Arun in a judgment after considering a petition filed by Omar Abdul Vahab of Thrissur and Kalandoor Kunhi Ahamad of Mangaluru, who were the director and producer of a movie named ‘Nalla Samayam’.
They were booked by the excise inspector of Kozhikode under sections 27 and 29 of the NDPS Act, which deals with punishment for consumption of narcotic drug or psychotropic substance and punishment for abetment and conspiracy, respectively.
The case was registered in 2022 after a YouTube video of the trailer of the movie posted in the Facebook page of the movie’s director showed some of the characters using drugs and claiming that MDMA gives energy and happiness to the user. It was alleged by prosecution that by including such scenes, the petitioners were giving a wrong message to the society and acting against the anti-drug initiative of the government.
In the judgment, the court said, “The prosecution case is that in the trailer published by the petitioners, some characters are seen consuming drugs. I am certain that Section 27 (punishment for using drugs) will not apply, since enactment of scenes in a movie cannot lead to the assumption that the actors had actually done what they had enacted.
If that reasoning is adopted, actors in villainous roles stand the risk of being tried and convicted for murder, arson and rape.” As section 27 does not apply, section 29 also will not apply, the court held while declaring that the offences alleged are not made out even if the prosecution’s allegations are accepted in full. The court then quashed the case against the petitioners.