The Madras High Court dismissed a writ petition filed as a PIL praying for a direction to rename 'Allopathy Medical System' as 'Drug System'. The Court held the petition frivolous, noting nomenclature change does not alter the efficacy or nature of the medicine.
Writ petition dismissed as devoid of merits.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
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BEFORE THE MADURAI BENCH OF MADRAS HIGH COURT
DATED: 05.03.2014
CORAM:
THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE V.RAMASUBRAMANIAN AND
THE HONOURABLE MS.JUSTICE V.M.VELUMANI
W.P.(MD)No.3891 of 2014
K.R.Bhalaiah
... Petitioner
Vs
1.The Chairman, Medical Council of India, Pocket -14, Sector-Dwarka Phase I, New Delhi – 110 077.
2.The President, Indian Medical Association, IMA House, Indra Prastha Marg, New Delhi – 110 002.
3.The Durgs Controller of India, Directorate of Health Services, Central Drugs Controller Organization, FDA Bhavan, Kotla Road, ITO, New Delhi.
... Respondents
Writ Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying for issuance of a Writ of Mandamus directing the third respondent to rechristen Allopathy Medical System as Drug System and Allopathy Medical Science as Drug Science.
For Petitioner : Mr.N.Shankar Ganesh
ORDER
(Order of the Court was made by
V.RAMASUBRAMANIAN, J.)
The petitioner has come up with the above writ petition as a Public Interest Litigation, with a very strange prayer, viz., to issue a writ of Mandamus to direct the third respondent to change the name of Allopathy Medical System as Drug System and Allopathy Medical Science as Drug Science.
https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/ 2. Heard Mr.N.Shankar Ganesh, learned counsel appearing for th petitioner.
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“60. Therefore, it is clear that there has been some resistance worldwide, to the Government patronage of indigenous systems of medicine. But Latin American countries and even China, spend millions of dollars for developing indigenous systems of medicine. The National Health Service of the United Kingdom is said to be funding billions of pounds every year on Homeopathy, despite opposition. In February 2010, the Science and Technology committee of the British Parliament submitted a report alleging that there is no evidence to show that Homeopathic treatments work better than a placebo. Therefore, the Committee recommended that the National Health Service should cease to provide funds for Homeopathic Hospitals and that Doctors in the N.H.S. System should not refer patients to Homeopaths. The committee even recommended that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHPRA) should bar homeopathic treatments from displaying medical claims on their labels. The British Medical Association Junior Doctors Committee even went to the extent of terming Homeopathy as witchcraft. But it is reported in the Print and Electronic Media that the campaign initiated by the Orthodox Medical Profession was effectively countered by a campaign called H:MC21 (Homeopathy:Medicine For the 21st Century) pointing out https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/ that more than 100 million European Union Citizens, including Prince Charles use Homeopathy for their health care. This has made it difficult for the Science and
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Technology Committee of the British Parliament to make inroads into State funding of homeopathy.”
Sd/-
Assistant Registrar(Writs)
/True Copy/
Sub-Assistant Registrar
To
1.The Chairman, Medical Council of India, Pocket -14, Sector-Dwarka Phase I, New Delhi – 110 077.
2.The President,
Indian Medical Association, IMA House, Indra Prastha Marg, New Delhi – 110 002.
3.The Durgs Controller of India, Directorate of Health Services, Central Drugs Controller Organization, FDA Bhavan, Kotla Road, ITO, New Delhi.
+One cc to M/s.N.Sankar Ganesh, Advocate, SR.No.13899 +One cc to M/s.K.K.Senthilvelan, Advocate, SR.No.14296 rj2 RL/6 c- 24/3/2014
W.P.(MD)No.3891 of 2014
05.03.2014
2 issues framed by the court
Whether the High Court can issue a writ directing the Durgs Controller of India to change the name of Allopathy Medical System to Drug System based on a PIL claim that Allopathy is not based on natura
Whether a mere change of nomenclature would make a medical system acceptable if it is inherently harmful.
Colour shows how this judgement treated each authority
DR.T.ARUTSELVAM v. THE GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NADUReferred¶25
DR.T.ARUTSELVAM v. THE GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NADU reported in 2012 (2) CTC 772
1 provisions across 1 enactments
K.R.Bhalaiah
The Chairman, Medical Council of India
The President, Indian Medical Association
The Durgs Controller of India
V.RAMASUBRAMANIAN
V.M.VELUMANI
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
