C ANBARASU Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this writ petition, by way of public interest litigation, the petitioner has sought for a direction upon the second respondent to take up the case relating to production and supply of fake malarial detection kits by the seventh respondent and to investigate the matter.

(2.) The petitioner claims to be the Chairman of the Para Medical Wing of the Indian Medical Association, Tamil Nadu State Branch and a qualified Allopathic Doctor and owning a hospital at Ayanavaram, Chennai - 600023. It is stated that the petitioner invited quotations from various suppliers for supply of Malaria Detection Kits. The seventh respondent submitted his quotation dated 28.05.2010 for supply of Fluorex Venous Malaria Detection Test packs and Fluorex Capillary Malaria Detection Test packs, (hereinafter referred to as the 'Kits') which are imported from Denmark. The petitioner is stated to have placed orders with the seventh respondent for supply of 200 numbers of such kits. On receiving the product, the petitioner found that the kits did not have import and repacking licence number, lot number and the expiry date and reference number were hand written, which gave room for suspicion as regards the genuinety of the product. The petitioner has further stated that he had used the kits for testing persons, who were infected with the Malaria as well as those, who are uninfected and the results in both cases were positive. Therefore, it is contended that based on wrong test results if a normal person is administered anti malarial treatment, it may lead to dangerous consequences and the doctors are exposed to risk of being sued. Hence, the petitioner submitted representation to the fifth and sixth respondent as well as to the fourth respondent, the DIG of Police (CBCID), calling upon them to initiate action and since there was no response to such petitions/representations, the petitioner has approached this Court by way of this writ petition.

(3.) When the writ petition came up for admission on 31.08.2010, we took note of a newspaper report in the "Deccan Chronicle" dated 20.08.2010, stating that the CBCID has initiated investigation in the matter. Therefore, we directed the the learned Government Pleader to seek instructions and inform this Court with regard to the stage of the investigation and the result therein. Subsequently, the matter was heard on various dates and the respondents 4 to 7 have filed their respective counter affidavits.