New Delhi: Delhi high court on Friday sought the Centre’s stand on a PIL that claimed rampant sale of expired drugs by chemists who erase the original manufacturing and expiry dates and re-stamp them.
Terming the issue as “serious”, a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao said the authorities must look into the matter, adding that it appeared such activities were “happening in Kolkata and Ahmedabad”, where expired medicines were re-stamped as unexpired and routed to other places via Delhi.
Issuing notice, the court said central authorities have to look into it and sought replies from ministry of health and family welfare and the Drug Controller General of India. It also sought their replies to advocate Amit Sahni’s plea seeking directions to the government to curb sale of such medicines.
Sahni, in his PIL, claimed that the original manufacturing and expiry dates as well as MRP were erased from expired medicines and the drugs were re-stamped as unexpired to sell them.
The plea said “expired medicines sold as unexpired not only affect the health of the person(s), but the same leads to unnecessary financial burden, which does not serve the purpose in any manner”.
