High Court of Jharkhand seeks response from Centre on relevant authority to control the price of critical medical equipment [READ ORDER]

The Jharkhand High Court has sought Centre's response on the action taken by its competent authority for controlling the price of critical medical equipments such as pulse Oximeters and oxygen concentrators included under the Drugs Price Control Order, 2013.

A division bench involving Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad was hearing a petition seeking guidelines from the Supreme Court to the Centre and the States to bring medical devices such as oxygen concentrators, pulse oximeters, and ventilator machines under price control by citing Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, and the National Disaster Management Act, 2005.

Quoting Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act,1955, and the National Disaster Management Act,2005, the petition also requested orders to bringCOVID-19 vaccines, such as Covishield and Covaxin, within price caps.

During the proceeding, the Petitioner claimed that the Central Government issued a notification on February 11, 2020, proclaiming medical devices to be "drugs." Furthermore, for tracking the price action of vital medical equipment like Pulse Oximeters and Oxygen Concentrators included under the DPCO, the office memorandum dated 29.06.2020 was used.

Because of the aforementioned arguments, the ASGI for the Centre requested a week to obtain instruction on the issue.

As a result, let this issue be posted on 17.06.2021 so that the relevant authority of the Central Government can inform this Court via affidavit of the measures taken in response to the notification dated 11.02.2020 and the office memorandum dated 29.06.2020," the Court has ordered. On 17th June, the case will be heard again.

The petitioner was represented by Shadab Ansari, while the Centre was represented by ASGI Rajiv Sinha. The State was represented by Rajiv Ranjan and Piyush Chitresh.

Concerning the Plea, in light of the country's health crisis and in the interests of the public, the petition requests that the price of life-saving Covid-19 vaccines like as Covishield and Covaxin, as well as medical devices such as oxygen concentrators, pulse oximeters, and ventilator machines, be regulated.

The petition stated that the Central Government has delegated the task of determining the price of this life-saving Covid-19 Vaccine to the manufacturer, who has done so in an illogical, arbitrary, and unfair manner.

Furthermore, the plea asserted that manufacturing companies have rectified the prices of lifesaving vaccines and medical devices, and the maximum retail prices of such lifesaving vaccines and medical devices have been kept very high (sometimes more than double), which is irrational, unfair, and capricious.

"Vaccine manufacturers have arbitrarily set vaccine prices for the federal government, state governments, and private hospitals, which is unethical and unjustified," the petition stated.

[READ ORDER]