HC quashes Centre’s ban on private firms making and selling labour-inducing drug

In an interim order the HC had, on August 31, suspended operation of the Centre’s order. Holding the government order as “arbitrary and unreasonable”, a bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and A K Chawla stated on Friday, “Welfare of citizens and interests of the public are paramount in any decision the State takes”. The bench held that the Central government has failed to balance the interests of pregnant women, the right of private companies to carry out their business, and misuse of the drug in the field of veterinary science.

It also noted that the order “prohibiting a countrywide existing manufacturing base for oxytocin, a life-saving drug (through over hundred private licensed units across the country), for over three decades or so, on the one hand and reserving it to the public sector through a single manufacturing entity, which has no previous record in its production, is fraught with potential adverse consequences”.

The court noted in its order that the material placed before it showed that when the decision was taken in February 2018 to restrict sale of oxytocin, state-run Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (KAPL) was not even licensed to manufacture the drug – it was issued the licence only in April the same year.

The Centre had earlier stated that only KAPL was to manufacture and distribute oxytocin in India from September 1, 2018.

At present, nearly 120 private companies have licence to produce oxytocin in India.

The HC observed, “The right of women…pregnant women and young mothers in particular, to have a safe post-partum recovery and avoid risk of haemorrhaging that can be potentially fatal, is an integral part of Article 21 of the Constitution…. The potential impact may or may not be direct; even if it leads to a few incidents, that would be a grave consequence contrary to public interest.”