VIRENDER KANSAL Vs. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of instant petition filed under S.482 CrPC, prayer has been made on behalf of the petitioners for quashing of complaint filed against them under Ss. 18(a)(i) read with S.17 punishable under S. 27 (d) of Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and the Rules, 1945 (hereinafter, 'Act' and 'Rules') and order dtd. 8/5/2018 (Annexure P-5) passed by learned Judicial Magistrate First Class Nahan, in Complaint No. 116/3 of 2018, titled State of Himachal Pradesh vs. Norang Raj Aggarwal and others, whereby learned court below proceeded to order summoning of the petitioners herein, in the complaint, as detailed herein above, lodged at the behest of the Drug Inspector, Nahan, District Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh.

(2.) Precisely, the facts of the case, as emerge from the record, are that the Chief Medical Officer, Sirmaur at Nahan, vide supply order dtd. 12/7/2016(available at page 30 of the paper book), placed order with M/s Novex Healthcare, Parwanoo, District Solan, Himachal Pradesh to purchase drugs namely Inj. Frusemide, Salbutamol Syp. and Tab. Dicyclomine 10mg. Pursuant to aforesaid supply order of drugs, M/s Novex Healthcare Parwanoo supplied one Lakh tablets of Dicyclomine 10 mg. Drug Inspector Hqrs Nahan, Sirmaur, after having seen some report published in social media that the wrapper containing tablet Dicyclomine has also been shown to be containing Dexamethasone, directed Chief Pharmacist, office of Chief Medical Officer, Sirmaur at Nahan to inform whether the above said medicine has been purchased by office of Chief Medical Officer or not? If yes, how much quantity is lying in stock and how much stands distributed. (page 25 of paper book). Pursuant to aforesaid communication, Chief Pharmacist o/o Chief Medical Officer Sirmaur at Nahan informed the Drug Inspector, Nahan that the office of Chief Medical Officer has received 1 Lakh tablets of Dicyclomine tablets I.P. (Dexamethasone I.P. 0.5 mg) having Batch No. DCL-03, D/M 07/2017, D/E 12/2018 vide bill No. 3122 dtd. 11/8/2017 and as on 21/11/2017, 65,050 tablets are lying in District Drug Store, Sirmaur at Nahan and letters have been issued to the concerned Block Medical Officers and Medical Officers in this regard. It was also informed vide aforesaid communication that two carton boxes containing 1600 tablets of Dicyclomine tablets I.P. (received from Rajprua Block) vide Batch No. DCL-03., D/M 07/2017, D/E 12/2018 manufactured by M/s Therawin Formulations, 69-71, Jasmeet Nagar, Ambala were found to be properly labeled.

(3.) After having noticed aforesaid illegality allegedly committed by manufacturer of drug namely Dicyclomine, Drug Inspector, Hqrs, Nahan, drew samples of aforesaid drug from the District Drug Store, Sirmaur on 21/11/2017 under the provisions of Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules, 1945, for the purpose of testing and analysis. Sample was referred to Government Analyst, Composite Testing Laboratory Kandaghat, for test and analysis, who declared that, said drug in question is Not of Standard Quality vide his report No. CTL-Drugs/2016-7732 dtd. 22/12/2017, for the reason that "The tablet strips were labeled as Dicyclomine tablets IP. The composition details stamped on the tablet strips stated that each tablet contains 0.5 mg of Dexamethasone. On analysis, the tablets were found to have contained 9.54 mg of Dicyclomine and Dexamethasone was found absent." (available at page-50 and 51 of the paper-book). Besides above, Central Drug Inspector, who was made part of Central Investigation Team, got samples tested from Regional Drug Testing Laboratory, Chandigarh, who also vide report dtd. 29/12/2017 (Annexure P-2) concluded as under: