SC to hear plea against Ranbaxy on June 24

Supreme Court will hear on June 24 a petition seeking probe against Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd for allegedly manufacturing and selling adulterated medicines.

A bench of justices A K Patnaik and Ranjan Gogoi on Monday agreed to hear the PIL after the petitioner, advocate M L Sharma pleaded for an urgent hearing in the case.

The case was earlier heard by a different vacation bench which had on June 10 asked Sharma to substantiate his ‘unfounded allegations’ that the Indian pharma major was allegedly manufacturing and selling adulterated medicines.

He, thereafter, filed an additional affidavit in

the case.

The PIL alleged that the company has been fined $500 million by the US Food and Drug Administration (USfor making and selling "adulterated" drugs. It also sought sealing of all its manufacturing units here, including those in Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh and Dewas in Madhya Pradesh.

The petitioner alleged that despite Ranbaxy pleading guilty to supplying adulterated drugs in the US and it being fined such a huge amount, the Centre has not taken any action to prohibit or ban the drugs made by the company.

He also sought action against Indian drug regulator, Central Drug Standards Control Organisation, for permitting Ranbaxy to sell drugs in India, especially in the wake of the results of the USFDA probe against the company.