The role of a pharmacist is becoming increasingly challenging in India and elsewhere with launching of several hundreds of new drugs and their combinations with other drugs by the pharmaceutical companies in recent years. Dispensing of medicines has to be therefore judicious and accurate in the interest of patient safety. It is a pharmacist’s professional responsibility to ensure that prescriptions are properly dispensed and  medication errors are totally avoided. With rising cases of adverse drug reactions of approved drugs and withdrawal of some drugs from the market, the pharmacists have a key role in spreading awareness about the banned drugs for safety reasons and they should advise the patients not to consume such drugs lying at the pharmacies after the ban. A pharmacy professional who dispenses medicines in a community or hospital  pharmacy setting should thus keep track of the banned drugs and update his list for ready reference. An effective system of safe dispensing with checking and re-checking of prescription before dispensing medicines is extremely important and necessary in the interest of health and welfare of the patient. For shouldering such a huge responsibility, the pharmacist at the counter has to be adequately qualified. But most of persons dispensing medicines in a retail medical store are not actually qualified pharmacists. In India, a large majority of the 7 lakh medical shops are not owned by the pharmacists but the traders and they usually do not appoint a qualified pharmacist in medical stores. The Section 42 of Pharmacy Act 1948 clearly specifies that no person other than registered pharmacist can dispense medicines. This Section is supposed to have been implemented from September 1, 1984 throughout our country. But the fact is that the Section is not enforced in most places like drug stores, hospitals, nursing homes and even in military hospitals denying better pharmacy services to masses. Pharmacy Council of India and state pharmacy councils have a joint responsibility to enforce this Section of the Act. But that has not been happening so far for whatever reason. It is rather shocking to know that in India pharmacy inspectors are appointed by only two state pharmacy councils of Kerala and Maharashtra. Without adequate number of pharmacy inspectors, it is possible to enforce the Act throughout the country. This is a serious matter to be addressed by the PCI and state pharmacy councils without any delay.