The High Court of Telangana issued notices to the Centre, State and Medical Council of India on a petition seeking implementation of the provisions of Indian Medical Council which mandates “every physician to prescribe drugs with generic names legibly and preferably in capital letters.”
The bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijayan Reddy was hearing a plea filed by a retired government teacher from Nalgonda district seeking directions to the State Director of Medical Education and Director of Health Sciences to comply with Regulation 1.5 of the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, to avoid confusion due to illegible handwriting of doctors.
The Counsel appearing for the petitioner submitted that though the regulations prescribed by MCI have been made mandatory but the doctors have not been following the norms due to which pharmacists find it difficult to procure medicines because of illegible handwriting of doctors and sometimes even end up giving wrong medicines.
The petitioner has also urged that those doctors violating the provisions of MCI should face disciplinary action by the concerned authority.
The bench has directed the Centre, State and MCI to file their reply within 4 weeks and posted the matter for hearing on June 24.
India Legal Bureau