In what can be a big relief to thousands of pharma exporters in the country, the Madras High Court has today ordered to maintain status quo on the issue of implementation  of barcoding for exporters in the country.

The Madras High Court was moved jointly by CIPI and IDMA.

CIPI general secretary B Sethuraman said that the court has asked the government to maintain status quo on the issue of implementation  of barcoding for exporters in the country till January 6, 2012. The court will hear the issue on January 6.

The Madras High Court order effectively means that the Union commerce ministry will not be able to implement the second phase of barcode implementation under which barcoding on secondary level packaging was to become mandatory from January 1, 2012 and barcoding on primary level packaging was to become mandatory from July 1, 2012.