Ensure Drug Act complaints aren’t dismissed on technicalities at initial stage: HC to Govt

Srinagar, Sep 24: The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has asked authorities to ensure complaints under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, are not quashed at the initial stage only on account of technical defects.

A bench of Justice Rajnesh Oswal said this while dealing with a related plea.

The petitioner had questioned the proceedings of a complaint under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and the order of issuance of process dated March 25, 2019, passed by a trial court on the ground that the government had not arrayed the company as an accused in the complaint and in terms of the relevant sections of the act, the proceedings against the company could not be continued.

The government, besides narrating the factual aspects of the case, had also stated that the petitioner had distributed “not of standard quality drug”, as such, the petition had no merit.

After hearing the parties the court observed that the case of the petitioner was squarely covered by the judgment on August 4, 2022, of a coordinate bench of the court, therefore on the same grounds the proceedings initiated in the complaint were quashed with respect to the petitioner only.

However, the court noted that the majority of the prosecutions initiated under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act fail at the threshold only, in both the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh just because of non-compliance of the procedure envisaged under the act.

“This court has come across, a number of complaints wherein either the company is not arrayed as an accused, as in the present case, or the directors are arrayed as accused without making any averment in the complaint in respect of his or their role in the commission of offences,” the court said. “The defects pointed out by this court can be taken care of by providing the proper training to the officers concerned in respect of the technical requirements of law.”

The court expressed hope that concerned authorities would examine and look into the concerns shown by it and take corrective measures so as to ensure that the complaints under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, are not quashed at the initial stage only on account of technical defects.