The Pharmacy Council of India (PCI)'s recent announcement that the MS programmes being conducted by NIPERs are not approved by the PCI either for the purpose of registration as a pharmacist under the Pharmacy Act to practice the profession or any other purpose like teaching in approved pharmacy institutions will soon be contested by the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP).

Though DoP secretary Ashok Kumar and joint secretary Arun Jha refused to talk to Pharmabiz on the issue, sources close to the development said that the controversial issue was discussed threadbare at a marathon meeting convened by the DoP on the issue on March 5. The meeting was attended by officials from University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), NIPERs and Union Health Ministry.

The DoP will challenge the PCI announcement on the basis of a 1964 Union Home Ministry circular which says that any degree or diploma of an institution which was created by an Act of Parliament will be recognised automatically anywhere in the country for the purpose of employment. The home ministry circular was based on a court verdict on the issue. It may be recalled that the NIPER was created by the statute National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research Act, 1998.

There was consensus among the members in the meeting that since the NIPER was created by an Act of Parliament, its degrees are automatically recognised all over the country for the purpose of employment. Hence, there is no need for separate recognition by any authority, including the PCI.

However, confusion still remains about the status of PCI announcement. If the DoP does not take any immediate concrete action to remove the PCI announcement from its website, the pharmacy institutions in the country will follow the PCI circular and hundreds of MS (Pharmacy) students of all the NIPERs in the country will not be able to register as a pharmacist under the Pharmacy Act to practice the profession or to join the teaching faculty in PCI approved pharmacy institutions in the country.