Srinagar: The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has dismissed a petition that challenged a government advisory urging the retail pharmacies and wholesale drug outlets to install CCTV cameras and adopt a fully computerized billing system.
Dismissing the petition by All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists, the bench of Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul held that the advisory is helpful in checking the purchase of prohibited drugs, and would serve a purpose for the benefit of the public at large.
The petitioner association pleaded that the advisory was coming “heavily in the way of conduct of the business by the druggists and is, thus, impacting the chemists.”
The respondent authorities told the court that administrative directions have been issued by the Government of J&K to curb the menace of drug abuse.
The IT enabled surveillance system in pharmacies/medical establishments existing/operating across the UT of J&K is part of a robust mechanism to control and curb unlawful activities, they submitted before the court.
Justice Chatterjee after hearing the parties remarked “it is not understandable how petitioners are aggrieved by the advisory so far as it directs retail pharmacies and/or wholesale drug outlets of U.T. of J&K to install CCTV cameras and adopt fully computerized billing system”.
The purpose for issuing such advisory is aiming at checking and preventing sale of prohibited drugs used as drug abuse by drug addicts and drug traffickers, who buy it from medical shops/stores, he said.
The installation of CCTV cameras, the court said would help in identifying such drug abusers and, obviously, quell such practices besides maintaining computerized bills.
The court held that the consequences of drug use usually are not limited to the user and often extend to the user’s family and the greater community.
“The consequences of illicit drug use impact the entire criminal justice system, taxing resources at each stage of the release supervision process. It impacts productivity. It causes premature mortality, illness, injury leading to incapacitation and imprisonment all serve to directly reduce national productivity”, it added.
The court said that the public financial resources expended in the areas of health care and criminal justice as a result of illegal drug trafficking and use are resources which could otherwise be available for other policy initiatives.
It referred to the recommendations of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on calling for strict implementation for installation of CCTV cameras in chemist shops selling Scheduled X & H drugs.
This advisory, impugned herein, is, therefore, helpful in checking the purchase of prohibited drugs, and would serve a purpose for the benefit of the public at large, said the court.
It recorded that in the Union Territory of J&K, over 98 percent of retail pharmacies and 99 percent of wholesale establishments have already installed CCTV cameras and adopted a computerized billing system.
When the majority of retail pharmacies and wholesale establishments have installed CCTV cameras and started issuing computerized bills, it is not known who are being represented by petitioner-association in the instant writ petition, the court remarked.
It appears that the name of association is being used albeit majority of drug pharmacies have already adopted installation of CCTV cameras, it said adding a handful of drug pharmacies through instant writ petition want to defeat the objective of curbing a serious menace.
