The Supreme Court has served notices to the Centre and Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd on a PIL seeking cancellation of the company's licence and a CBI probe against it for allegedly supplying adulterated drugs in the country.
The action came on a petition filed by advocate M L Sharma who sought action against the Indian drug major for allegedly supplying substandard and adulterated drugs to the patients in the country.
Agreeing to examine the allegations, a bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam, agreed to examine the allegations and ordered notices to the Centre and the drug company. However, the bench did not pass any interim order for restraining the company from manufacturing drugs.
"The matter requires consideration and we will examine it but we cannot grant any interim stay," the bench said.
Sharma had earlier also filed a similar petition which was dismissed by the apex court. The court, however, had granted liberty to Sharma to file fresh petition with additional documents in support of his allegations.
In his PIL, Sharma alleged that, "Ranbaxy was fined $500 million by the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) for making and selling adulterated drugs."
The PIL also sought sealing of all its manufacturing units here, including those in Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh and Dewas in Madhya Pradesh. He 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 (CDSCO), for permitting Ranbaxy to sell drugs in India, especially in the wake of the results of the US FDA probe against the company.