Thousands of retail and wholesale chemists operating in the residential areas of Delhi are facing closure threat due to a recent Delhi High Court Order denying permission to such shops.

The HC had on January 25, 2005 instructed the state administration not to license any more medical shop in the residential areas and also not to renew any of the existing licenses once the present license term is over. Following the court order, the Delhi drugs control department has stopped clearing new applications for retail / wholesale licenses.

The HC verdict came in favour of a small group of chemists functioning in the commercial markets of Delhi. The chemists had approached the court after they found themselves losing out to the retail chemist shops that are coming up in the residential areas of the state. However, the chemists in the commercial centres constitute only 20 per cent of the total chemist shops in the state. There are 15,000 licensed medical shops (both retail and wholesale) in Delhi region.

"How can the court prohibit setting up medical shops in residential areas when they allow doctors to practice, clinics to function, laboratories to be set up in the same residential areas. Chemists are also part of the healthcare system and cannot be singled out," affected chemists ask.

The presence of chemist shops in residential areas is also a necessity for many other reasons. Delhi has plenty of resettlement colonies where there is no commercial market. The Delhi Development Authority has set up community markets only in few places of the state. The citizens' right to access medicines would be harmed if all those chemists are denied permission to function, chemists feel. They point out that if the HC order takes effect, people will have to travel 2 to 5 kms from residential areas to buy medicines.

The drugs control department has however, stopped issuing trade licenses to new shops that are coming up in residential areas. "We have completely stopped issuing new licenses after the court order. The issue would turn very serious by year-end as hundreds of chemist shops will be approaching us for renewal of licenses. Today, the existing shops are not affected, but by 2006, 90 per cent of the chemist shops will have to be closed as per the current order," drug control officials said.

The petition, against which the HC order was come, was directed against the State Government. The chemists have approached the Chief Minister, MLAs, MPs and also the Governor of Delhi to make the government pursue the case. The Retailers & Distributors Chemists Association of National Capital Territory of Delhi (RDCA), affiliated to All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), is also actively pursuing the matter with the authorities. "The RDCA assures its members to take up this matter by all possible legal means," Sandip Nangia, president, RDCA said.