23. In the case at hand, admittedly, it is recorded in the panchanama that test was conducted on the field drug kit and the resultant colour pattern, (dark brown) conforms and matched suspect substance i.e. amphetamine, recovered from the person of the applicant. However, it may be stated that natural narcotic drug like Ganja, Charas, Opium Poppy can be easily identified by their colour, texture or smell but most of the drugs abused today are refined and processed substances and are mostly circulated as white, off-white or brown powder, crystals or flakes or colorless, odorless liquids and, therefore, it is very difficult to identify the substance as a ‘drug’ unless it is tested with different reagents. A reagent is a substance or compound added to a system to cause chemical reaction. In the case at hand, prosecution has not pointed out with which reagent the suspect substance was tested by the field officers. Hand-book in Chapter VII as an illustration, has just given few visuals with which the officers should familiarize during the drugs law enforcement. Obviously, it means, the Narcotic Control Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has not prescribed the standards to establish minimum requirements for colour test, and methods of testing reagents to determine nature of substance, based on colour range resulting from reaction with reagent. In the case at hand, it is prosecution's case that white powder (suspect substance) recovered from the person of the applicant and the coaccused when tested with reagents, it produced dark brown colour, which matches colour pattern for the amphetamine. However, there are no documented set standards as to which substance upon testing with reagent/s would produce, which colour. Thus, all and every aspect of field testing is left to the experience, knowledge and perception of Law Enforcement Officer.
