The Madras High Court, which had on December 19, 2011 stayed the second phase of barcode implementation till January 6, 2012, did not take up the issue for hearing today. Now, the case is likely to come up for hearing on January 9 or 10.

CIPI general secretary B Sethuraman said that the case regarding the second phase of mandatory implementation of barcode for the exporters in the country was not listed for hearing on January 6. The court had earlier posted the case to January 6 for further hearing. The case most probably will come up for hearing on January 9 or 10, he added.

Delivering its order on December 19 in reply to a petition moved jointly by CIPI and IDMA, the Madras High Court had ordered the union commerce ministry to maintain status quo on the issue of implementation of barcoding for the pharma exporters in the country till January 6.

Even though the union commerce ministry had since then extended the implementation of the second and third phases of barcoding by six months, the court's intervention on the issue is significant as the court's directive will set the tone for the future course of action on the issue, on which both the industry and the government have locked horns for some time.

Ever since the commerce ministry issued a notification on January 10, 2011 rolling out its plans to implement barcoding for pharma exports, the industry has been on warpath against the ministry's decision. In fact, the industry has been running from pillar to post to convince the commerce ministry officials to see reason as they argued that the implementation of barcoding on secondary level packaging will entail a string of regulatory, technical as well as cost issues which will harm the pharma exporters in the country.

Burt, the industry's repeated pleas to defer the barcode implementation fell on the deaf ears of the officials of the commerce ministry, forcing the industry to turn to the last resort of moving court.