CHENNAI: Even though Siddha doctors are not prohibited from practising the modern scientific system of medicine, the Madras High Court refused to quash a pending criminal case against a Siddha doctor for stocking allopathy medicines in her clinic without a license, as it is against the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
Citing that the case against the petitioner is not for using the modern scientific system, but for stocking and selling the drugs without a license, Justice G Jayachandran refused to quash the case and directed the trial court to dispose of it expeditiously.
The petitioner S Sindhu, a Siddha practitioner, moved the petition seeking to quash the pending criminal case against her before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Egmore.
Based on a complaint in February 2017, the assistant director of drugs control inspected the petitioner's clinic and recovered allopathy medicines, alleging that they were in contravention of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
Aggrieved by the registration of the case and the fact that the trial court took cognizance of the case, the petitioner moved the plea.
The petitioner contended that the State has declared that every medical practitioner holding the qualification specified under the Indian Medicine Central Council Act, 1970, and the Tamil Nadu Siddha System of Medicine (Development and Registration of Practitioners) Act, 1997, are entitled to practice the modern scientific system of medicine. Thus, the petitioner can prescribe allopathy medicine, and possessing a small quantity of allopathy medicine in her clinic will not amount to selling the medicine, hence it is not an offence, she added.
However, the judge negativated the submissions of the petitioner stating that the offense was not about practising the modern scientific medicine system, but stocking and selling of allopathy medicine without a license, which is against Section 18 (c) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and dismissed the petition.