The Bombay high court on Wednesday asked the Maharashtra government to inform what steps it would take to curb online sales of scheduled drugs without proper prescription from doctors.
The court raised the question on being informed that college students were buying abortion pills online. A bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice S.B. Shukare asked the government to inform by Thursday about plans to stop such practices.
The court was hearing a public interest litigation seeking ban on online sale of such medicines dispensed without a doctor’s prescription.
The petition, filed by Mayuri Patil, a lecturer in S.K. Somaiya College, contended that under provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and Drugs and Cosmetics Rules 1945, drugs prescribed under Schedule H could not be sold without a doctor’s prescription.
The drugs included anti-pregnancy pills, sleeping tablets and abortion pills.Ms Patil told the court that college students were misusing the law and buying drugs with fake prescriptions.
She cited the example of one of her students who remained absent from class for quite some time and only later, Ms Patil came to know that she had become pregnant and purchased abortion pills online by submitting a fake prescription.
Earlier, the court advised the petitioner to purchase the same medicine online using a fake prescription and place it before the court, which Ms Patil did on Wednesday.
Replying to the court’s query, Ms Patil said the drugs were supplied to her through a courier service. The court then told the Maharashtra government to ban drugs prescribed under Schedule H from being couriered.
