The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed Govts of Punjab & Haryana & Chandigarh Administration to conduct raids at chemist shops & drug manufacturers to ascertain quality of sanitisers & masks being sold in view of Coronavirus outbreak & also whether their pricing is as per the notification of the Central Govt.
The HC bench of Justice Amol Rattan Singh issued these suo motu directions while hearing a plea from a Hisar medical firm booked under the Essential Commodities Act for allegedly cheating people by selling a disinfectant as sanitiser for which it didn't have a licence.
The March 21 notification of the Centre stipulates that all hand sanitisers shall not be priced at more than ₹100 per 200 ml. The court observed that most companies manufacturing & selling hand sanitisers, even after March 21, 2020, are showing the maximum retail price of such products to be far above fixed by the government. Hence, court directed additional chief secretaries/ principal secretaries/secretaries of the departments of health, & food & supplies of both the states & Chandigarh, to have ‘raids’ conducted at chemist shops & manufacturing units, to obtain samples of hand sanitisers/hand disinfectants & wherever those are manufactured after March 2020, showing a maximum retail price above beyond fixed by government action be initiated against the manufacturer or chemist, whosoever is violating the notification.
The HC also observed that a large number of brands of facial masks are being found of highly sub-standard quality.
The Court ordered that “Where even while tying the masks, the strings attached break off immediately, thereby making the masks unusable. Consequently, in the ‘raids’ to be conducted, boxes of masks/individual masks shall also be collected by those of the ‘raiding party’, with the masks to be tested as regards this basic issue of breaking of strings, & if such breaking is found, or the masks are otherwise found to be of sub-standard quality, proceedings as per law shall be taken against all concerned".
The officers have been asked to file personal affidavits on July 6 on the raids conducted & the results. Further, the court also directed the lawyers associated with the case to immediately inform chief secretaries of both the states & UT adviser so that compliance is ensured.
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