Priyanka Singh
Published on: September 15, 2022 at IST
A batch of appeals by the Pharmacy Council of India were dismissed by the Supreme Court, which was filed against the judgments of certain High Courts that had set aside the moratorium imposed on starting new Pharmacy Colleges in India for the next 5 years.
The bench comprising of Justice B.R Gavai and Justice P.S Narsimha exhibited their agreement with the High Courts’ judgments that a ban cannot be imposed by executive instructions, and stated,
“We have dismissed the appeal. We have held that you are having sufficient regulatory powers. Merely because an application is made does not bound the PCI has to grant it.”
“The abundance of pharmacy colleges is one factor which can be considered. Basically we have agreed with the HC that this cannot be done by an executive’s instruction.”
The judgments against the ban were pronounced by the High Courts of Delhi, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh, where the issues were communicated on dates 17.07.2019 and 09.09.2019 by the PCI to the Union Territory Administrations and State Governments on imposing a five-year moratorium on the opening of new Pharmacy colleges’ w.e.f. the academic year of 2020-2021.
The High Courts observed that the directions issued by the PCI were extra vires of the powers of the Pharmacy Act, 1948.
