Delhi HC concerned over expired medicines being sold illegally

Terming as "serious" sale of expired drugs as unexpired by erasing the original manufacturing and expiry dates and re-stamping them, the Delhi High Court Friday said the Centre ought to look into the matter.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao said primarily such activities were "happening in Kolkata and Ahmedabad", where expired medicines were re-stamped as un-expired and routed to other places via Delhi.

Therefore, the central authorities have to look into it, the court said and issued a notice to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI). It also sought their replies to a lawyer's plea seeking directions to the government to curb the sale of such medicines.

"It is a serious matter," the court said and listed it for further hearing on March 11.

Advocate Amit Sahni, in his PIL, has claimed that the original manufacturing and expiry dates, as well as the maximum retail price (MRP), are erased from expired medicines by the offenders and the drugs are re-stamped as unexpired to sell them.

He said he filed the petition after coming across news reports of such activities taking place in West Bengal, where police had arrested some persons who were reselling expired medicines by changing the expiry dates.

The plea said, "expired medicines sold as un-expired not only affect the health of the affected person(s), but the same leads to unnecessary financial burden, which does not serve the purpose in any manner".

It said there was a video on YouTube that showed how the original manufacturing and expiry dates, as well as the MRP, can be erased by aftershave lotions and then re-stamped with fresh details.

Sahni has sought directions to the government to devise a new mechanism of printing the details on medicine strips.

(With inputs from agencies.)