NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has warned Pharmacy Council of India that it would be superseded if it did not mend its whimsical manner of functioning in relation to grant of recognition to pharmacy institutions despite they having met all pre-requisites to start admissions.

While dealing with the grievance of Y N S College of Pharmacy and Research Centre, a bench of Justices R F Nariman and Indu Malhotra said: “We have been informed that the Pharmacy Council is doing this in a number of cases, and is also irregular in the manner in which it grants approval. Sometimes it does so for the year in question and in other cases, it does so for many years at one go.”

“We at present only caution the Pharmacy Council to act as it is supposed to act in accordance with the time line laid down. If we find that this course of conduct persists, we will be constrained to pass orders, if necessary, even going to the extent of superseding the Council. With this caution, we dispose of the present writ petition,” it said.

The bench said the petition disclosed a sorry state of affairs. “Despite approval by the All India Council for Technical Education on April 10 and affiliation letters from the University for the Bachelor of Pharmacy course, and the Diploma course by the Board, having been issued on May 15, we find yet another instance of the Pharmacy Council dragging its feet and ultimately giving their no objection only on July 20, thereby paying scant respect to the time line that has been laid down by this Court,” it said.

