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S. Athilakshmi vs The State rep. by the Drugs Inspector (Criminal Appeal No. of 2023, arising out of SLP (Crl.) No. 9978 of 2022)

Special Leave Petition (Crl.) · 2023 INSC 237Decided 15 Mar 2023
Special Leave Petition (Crl.) No. 9978 of 2022
Krishna Murari · Sudhanshu Dhulia

Background

The appellant is a government doctor (a dermatologist and medical college professor) who also runs a private consultation practice. A Drugs Inspector inspected her private clinic in 2016 and found a small quantity of various skin-care medicines (lotions, creams, ointments) along with some sale bills, and after a long delay obtained sanction to prosecute her under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, for allegedly "stocking drugs for sale" without a valid drug licence: an offence carrying a minimum 3-year jail term. The Madras High Court refused to quash the case, so she appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the law's exemption under Schedule K (Rule 123) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules specifically protects registered medical practitioners who supply drugs to their own patients, so long as they are not running an "open shop" or selling "across the counter." Since the appellant was a specialist doctor keeping small quantities of medicines typical of a dermatology consultation room, not operating a retail pharmacy, and since the drugs were confirmed to be of standard quality (not spurious), the ingredients of the offence (stocking specifically "for sale") were not made out. The Court also flagged the unexplained multi-year delay between the inspection (2016) and the sanction for prosecution (2018), and found the sanction itself appeared mechanical and showed no application of mind. The appeal was allowed and the criminal proceedings were quashed.

Lesson Learnt

Doctors who keep and dispense small quantities of medicine to their own patients as part of legitimate practice are protected by a specific legal exemption and cannot be prosecuted as unlicensed drug sellers merely because some medicines are found on their premises: prosecution requires proof that the stock was genuinely meant for open sale.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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