PHARMADUDE PHARMACY VANNAPPURAM Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The issue arising in these three writ petitions revolve around the validity of a Circular dtd. 4/9/2024 issued by the Office of the Drugs Controller. One of the writ petitions seeks implementation of the said circular, while the other two, seeks to quash it. Though these writ petitions claim contradictory reliefs, since the questions are interconnected, they are disposed of by this common judgment.

(2.) By the impugned Circular, the Drugs Controller issued a direction, stipulating that the applicants for drug licence must incorporate a statement in the affidavit submitted along with their respective applications, an undertaking that the licensee will not exhibit any discount boards in their shops and shall also replace the words 'misleading claims ' with 'as discount board related to' in the affidavit. Petitioners in W.P.(C) No. 41978 of 2024 and W.P.(C) No.39706 of 2024 have challenged the circular, while the petitioner in W.P.(C) No.1447 of 2025 wants it to be implemented. Further reliefs, to declare the lack of any authority for the Drugs Controller to issue prohibitory orders preventing the medical shop owners from selling the drugs below the maximum retail price and also for a declaration that the drug dealers are entitled to display discount sale boards in front of their pharmacy outlets have also been sought.

(3.) Petitioners are dealers engaged in the business of sale of medicines and a drug licence is necessary for such sales. Petitioners allege that the Office of the Drugs Inspector informed them that, to obtain a new licence, they must, in the existing format of the affidavit to be submitted along with the application, incorporate certain additional words as has been notified in the Circular dtd. 4/9/2024. The terms of the impugned Circular stipulate that the applicants for licence must undertake that they shall not exhibit any display boards showing discounts being offered at the pharmacy and further, that the existing words in the affidavit, which stipulated that misleading claims about drugs will not be published, should be replaced by the words 'discount boards related to '.