The Madras High Court, for the third time in a short span of 10 days, has granted stay on the controversial order of Drug Control General of India (DCGI) centralizing the issuance of Certificate of Pharmaceutical Products (CoPP) for exporters.

On October 23, the Madras High Court has granted the third stay on the DCGI order. The latest petition was moved by the Confederation of Indian Pharmaceutical Industries (CIPI) general secretary B Sethuraman said.

The stay order granted to CIPI is significant as it will put at rest the speculation about the jurisdiction of the stay orders. Since the CIPI is a confederation of thousands of pharma units spread across the country, it will have a countrywide jurisdiction just on the lines of FDC issue.

In the first stay order dated October 13, 2009, the high court had granted stay on a petition moved by D I Dileep Kumar, the secretary of the Tamil Nadu Drug Inspectors Association. Again the Madras high court granted stay on the same order on October 16 on a petition moved by B Sethuraman, chairman of the Federation of South Indian Pharma Manufacturers Association which has members from only the southern states.