Supreme Court dismisses PIL against Ranbaxy alleging adulterated drug supply, says petitioner can file fresh petition with adequate evidence

The Supreme Court today dismissed the petition filed by Advocate ML Sharma [Manohar Lal Sharma Advocate v. Union of India & Ors., WP (Crl.) 98/2013] alleging the manufacture of adulterated drugs by Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (Ranbaxy).

A Division Bench of Justices AK Patnaik and Ranjan Gogoi dismissed the petition for want of evidence but allowed the petitioner to file a fresh petition if he is able to adduce adequate evidence to support his claim.

In his petition, Sharma had alleged that an investigation of the manufacturing units of Ranbaxy at Ponta Sahib and Dewas was carried out by the Food and Drug Administration of USA, which revealed that “adulterated drugs are being manufactured in their factory which is not only useless but is also dangerous to the life of patient”.

He had further contended that a civil suit and a criminal case were filed against Ranbaxy in USA whereupon Ranbaxy pleaded guilty and paid $500 million to settle the matter. He had also alleged that Ranbaxy had been selling the same medicines in India for the past several years, a fact which the Government of India had chosen to overlook.

Sharma had, inter alia, prayed for the cancellation of all manufacturing licenses issued to Ranbaxy, sealing of its manufacturing units at Ponta Sahib and Dewas and prosecution of the former and existing Directors of Ranbaxy.

According to Outlook, the Court said that it cannot decide the plea against Ranbaxy on the basis of a judgement passed by a US court against Ranbaxy and it needed evidence to the effect that the drugs manufactured in India were spurious, adulterated and sub-standard. The matter was earlier heard by a Division Bench of Justices Gyan Sudha Misra and Madan B. Lokur who had asked Sharma to produce evidence to substantiate his claims.

Speaking to Bar & Bench, Sharma said that the

“Court has clearly given me the liberty to file a fresh petition with certain material facts. The earlier Bench, which heard the matter, asked for the order of the foreign court. This Bench said that it won’t go by an order of a court in a foreign country; instead it asked to provide the names and details of the drugs which are adulterated. I have the details of 30 such drugs which are adulterated and I would be filing a fresh petition day after tomorrow.”

Sharma had earlier filed a petition against allowing FDI in multi brand retail which was dismissed by the Supreme Court. He has also filed a PIL challenging the appointment of the Comptroller and Auditor General which will be heard by the Court after summer vacations. He is also one of the petitioners in the writ petition pertaining to the Coalgate scam in which hearing will continue after the summer vacations.