Delhi High Court seeks Central government response on plea to make QR code mandatory on all medicines, cosmetics, food products

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice to Central government and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on a plea seeking QR code feature on all medicines, food products and cosmetics so that their information can be converted from text to speech for the visually impaired people. .A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad asked the authorities to file their response to the plea and posted the case for further hearing on August 16. .The Court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition by the non-governmental organisation (NGO), The Kapila & Nirmal Hingorani Foundation and Delhi University Professors, Dr Smriti Singh and Shobhan Singh. .The petitioner claimed that visually impaired persons face difficulties in identifying medicinal products and accessing all relevant product information.These difficulties were exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown and the continued lack of effective access to medicines, food, cosmetics and other consumer products constitutes a denial of the rights under Article 21 as well as their statutory rights under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, the petition stated."In order to secure effective access to medicines, food, cosmetics and other consumer products, it has become imperative and expedient to affix Quick Response (QR) Codes in a proper manner and containing the requisite information so that a smartphone with accessibility feature could then scan the QR Code with its stored data or information about the particular product, and decode it to convert the text to speech format of the application," it was contended.The plea said that using QR Codes would increase the efficacy of medical care for visually impaired patients."Employing QR Codes in the manner and form detailed in the Petition would increase the efficacy of medical care for visually impaired patients by reducing medication errors, incorrect dosages, unintended drug interactions and side effects. In addition, QR Codes could also help to choose the language of the instruction and/or allow text to voice in regional languages using google translator or similar tools," the petition said..Petitioners further argued that implementing these steps would help the taking of daily and timely medication by visually impaired patients and all those who do not understand, read or write English. "Apart from the substantial medical benefits, the use of QR Codes would also result in several social, economic and environmental benefits as stated in the Petition. Moreover, the addition of QR Codes to medicinal products could help combat the growing menace of counterfeit and substandard medicines which represent an enormous public health challenge, besides causing financial loss and damage to the reputation of trusted pharmaceutical companies," it was submitted. .Advocates Dr Aman Hingorani, Dr Shweta Hingorani and Naseem Ahmed appeared for the petitioners.