PIL on fake water bottles, medicines: Delhi HC seeks Centre's reply within four weeks

Concerned over risk to public health due to "pervasive menace" of fake water bottles and medicines, the Delhi High Court on Friday sought the Centre's response on a PIL seeking implementation of anti-counterfeit measures like hologram seals and ISI marks.

A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath issued notice to the ministries of Health and Consumer Affairs seeking their replies within four weeks and listed the matter for further hearing on September 16.

"Get instructions. It is an important issue which needs consideration. Notice. File your counter in four weeks," the court directed the ministries.

The PIL has alleged that there are about 10,000 illegal bottled water units operating in the National Capital Region (NCR) itself which sell around 30,000-40,000 bottles daily "by refilling used bottles and illegally using labels of 64 licensed and branded manufacturers".

The petition by Satish Chandra, filed through advocate Abhiuday Chandra, has contended that the "Central Pollution Control Board has found that the tap water in Delhi contains carcinogenic substances and the toxic quotient is five times higher than the WHO standards."

"It must be borne in mind that it is primarily these regular sources of water which is used for refilling counterfeit bottled water. Up to 40 per cent of bottled water comes from the same source as tap water," it has said.

It has also said that despite a 2009 order of the high court directing the authorities to take immediate strict action against manufacturers of bottled water operating without obtaining licences, "the problem of spurious water bottling still persists, and on account of this worrying concern the PMO recently in the month of June 2015 has asked states to check water bottling racket".

"Likewise, the problem of counterfeit medicines is taking shape of transnational organised crime in India, affecting health of Indian nationals throughout the country," the plea has said and added that "approximately 25 per cent of drugs in India are counterfeit". 

The petition said that presence of Bureau of Indian Standards marks like 'ISI' on water bottles and presence of barcode serial numbers on medicines are primary indicators which exhibit genuineness of their quality to the consumers.

"Therefore, the larger concern is that by replicating or reusing the packaging/label of a licensed product, the end consumer is misled about its genuineness as he is unable to distinguish between genuine and counterfeit product," it said. It said that the preventive solution lies in adopting a packing standard which is anti-counterfeit, tamper-evident and trackable through technology.

"Anti-counterfeit packing method/standard makes it difficult to reuse a bottle or imitate a packing as well as creating a distinction in the minds of consumers between a genuinely-packed product and a counterfeit product," it said.

"As tamper-evident packing standard, use of breakable hologram seal either on cap/lid of a water/medicine bottle or on the flipside of a medicine tablet strip with mobile trackable hologram having barcode can be prescribed for ascertaining product details. Because, a broken hologram seal cannot be reused again and therefore it acts as a tamper-evidence packing standard," the petition said. It also sought enforcement of regulations of Bureau of Indian Standards (Certification) 1988 as well as directions issued by Central Marks Department (CMD) in 2006, mandating the use of hologram marks for bottled water.

"Similarly, for medicines as well, the proposed amendment to Rule 96 (manner of labeling requirement) of Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 should be enforced with an additional requirement of hologram barcodes, which is anti-counterfeit and trackable," the plea said.