The decision of the Kerala High Court to extend the time limit for the retail chemists for returning the banned combination drugs to the manufacturers is becoming a regulatory challenge for the drug control officials, according to sources from the enforcement agency.

On March 17, the court had first given two weeks’ time to the traders to return the banned items. However, the chemists and druggists association further approached the court with a request to extend the date for three months, which the court granted.

Sources have added that enforcement officials were unable to strictly insist the traders to remove the prohibited drugs out of their shelves due to the extension order. The court order becomes a bottleneck for proper checking and monitoring though it does not allow sale of the FDCs.

Besides, the traders, both wholesalers and retailers, will take advantage of the extension period to finish the stocks either by selling out or by hoarding expecting a reversal decision by the Union health ministry, which may not happen. The court has given the traders body, All Kerala Chemists and Druggists Association (AKCDA) who was the petitioner in the court seeking time for sending back the stocks to manufacturers, three months’ time for returning the products.

The chemists association in Kerala wants time to return the drugs at a time when the traders association in Tamil Nadu has returned all the stocks of the banned drugs worth Rs. 40 crores to the manufacturers and given the list of banned FDCs to the DC officials.

An office-bearer of the Kerala Retail Chemists Forum (KRCF) has alleged that AKCDA has secret support from the drug control officials and manufacturers in selling out all the stocks though the court order does not allow any trader to sell the banned products. The office-bearer further said the retailers are still selling the banned FDCs as the general public is unaware of it, and in the wake of the court order the regulatory staff are deliberately not going ahead with strict enforcement.

KRCF source said the members of the Forum have already stopped sale of the banned drugs and stocking alternatives.