Even as the case is pending in the Madras High Court over the appointment of the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), the Health Ministry is planning to set up an expert panel to review the parameters and qualifications for the post of DCGI and thereby put an end to the controversies in this regard.
The ministry is learnt to have started consultations with the Law Ministry over the appointment of the expert panel as the matter is sub-judice. The proposed panel would review and lay down the qualifications, experience, job description, powers and responsibilities of the DCGI in line with the provisions in the Drugs and Cosmetic (D&C) Act.
The committee may also be asked to examine the issues related to the posting of other senior officials in the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and make recommendations on the qualifications and experience.
The appointment of the DCGI has been a matter of controversy for years now and the matter came in for sharp criticism by a Parliamentary panel also last year. An expert committee set up by the Health Ministry to go through the finding of the Parliamentary panel on the CDSCO also had suggested a review of the terms and conditions for appointing the DCGI.
Following the controversies, the Health Ministry had made changes in the recruitment rules in June 2011 but that also was challenged in the court in December 2011. While disposing of the contempt of court petition filed against the appointment of Dr GN Singh as DCGI, the Supreme Court in July last year had directed the Madras High Court to decide the DCGI case pending there preferably in two months' time. However, the final hearing on the case is yet to be held.
On the other hand, the Parliamentary panel also expressed its dissatisfaction over the new recruitment rules. “The Committee notes that the modifications carried out previously by the Government in the qualification and recruitment rules for the post of DCGI are a matter of litigation. In any case these modified qualifications and rules do not address the concerns of the Committee to any extent whatsoever,” the panel observed.