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Informist, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – Upholding the summons issued against Marion Biotech Pvt. Ltd. and its directors by a lower court in Uttar Pradesh under The Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, the Supreme Court observed that the company had brought the country a bad name when children in Uzbekistan died after consuming a cough syrup manufactured by it. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said the incident showed how our moral fibre had gone down with companies indulging in such activities for the sake of profit.

 

"Can you understand the dent you have caused to the ways of the nation as well?" the court said. "This is not a case to interfere. You should have been summoned under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code!" The section in the former criminal code deals with the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and covers deaths caused with intent or knowledge but without premeditation.

 

In 2024, a court in Uttar Pradesh had issued summons to the company and its directors on a complaint by a drug inspector alleging various violations, including the manufacture and sale of drugs "not of standard quality". The summons invoked sections relating to adulterated and spurious drugs, procedural non-compliance, and liability of company officials.

 

The case was founded on a test analysis report declaring certain samples "not of standard quality", resulting in proceedings under relevant penal sections of The Drugs and Cosmetics Act. The report had found that certain batches of cough syrup manufactured by Marion Biotech were "not of standard quality" and showed the presence of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol in the propylene glycol used in the formulation.

 

The petitioners argued that the only finding in the report was that the drug was "not of standard quality" and nowhere were the samples found to have been "adulterated" or "spurious" to bring such serious charges under the 1940 Act. The test analysis report lacked compliance with Rule 46 of the Drugs Rules, 1945, as it did not disclose the full protocol, methods, or results, the petitioners said. Further, the examination for diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol in the case was not mandated but done only upon a special request by the drug inspector, raising further questions about the standard procedure being adopted, they added.

 

The Centre argued that the drug inspector was operating within his statutory mandate and collected samples and initiated prosecution based on objective lab analysis. The complaint lays out the basis for prosecution and the analytical report constitutes adequate prima facie evidence for the case to proceed, it said. The use of ethylene glycol in the manufacture of cough syrup was prohibited under British pharmacopoeia which was applicable in September 2021, when the syrup was manufactured, it added.

In 2022, 68 children died after consuming cough syrup linked to Marion Biotech. In 2024, after a six-month trial, a court in Uzbekistan sentenced 23 people to prison terms over the deaths of children linked to contaminated cough syrup produced by Marion Biotech.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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