Telangana High Court on Thursday issued notices to the Central and State governments in a PIL petition seeking a direction to ensure all doctors in the country wrote generic names of medicines in their prescriptions.
A bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy instructed the Centre and the State along with the Medical Council of India to file counter affidavits within four weeks. A retired government school teacher P. Ramana Reddy from Miryalaguda, who filed the petition, stated that Clause 1.5 of Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations-2002 mandated that every physician prescribed drugs with generic names.
The clause makes it clear that generic names of drugs should be written ‘legibly and preferably in capital letters’, the petitioner said. In a letter, the MCI had urged all the registered medical practitioners in the country to comply with that clause. Even the Directors of Medical Education and the Directors of Health Services of all States were instructed to ensure the clause was complied with all doctors.
In case of failure to follow the clause, action should be initiated against the doctors concerned, the MCI said in the letter, according to the petitioner. The retired teacher requested the court to pass an order declaring that failure of the authorities to ensure physicians mentioned generic names of medicines in the prescriptions was arbitrary and illegal.