SC upholds summons against Panacea Biotec for discrepancy in labelling drug
This story was originally published at 19:14 IST on 26 February 2026
Register to read our real-time news.Informist, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026
NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Thursday upheld an order issued in 2012 by a chief judicial magistrate court of Thrissur, Kerala, summoning Panacea Biotec Ltd. and its top officials in an alleged case of discrepancy in the labelling of a drug manufactured and sold by the company. The apex court rejected a Kerala High Court's 2022 verdict that quashed the summons as the same were issued beyond the chief judicial magistrate court's territorial jurisdiction and it failed to conduct the mandatory statutory enquiry under Section 202 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
The top court said that Joy Mandi, who had informed about the alleged discrepancy in the case and to whom the medicine was sold, resided within the limits of the local jurisdiction of the magistrate concerned. Thereafter, the information was probed by the Kerala government's drug inspector and the latter filed a complaint before the magistrate. According to the 1973 Code, the magistrate was not required to examine the complainant and the witnesses, if a public servant is acting or purporting to act in discharge of his official duty or a court has made the complaint, said the top court.
Mandi had filed a complaint before the drug inspector in 2006 regarding the discrepancy in the labelling of the drug manufactured and sold by Panacea Biotec. The allegation was that on the seal cap of a vial, the medicine was labelled as pentavalent vaccine easy five, but on the vial it was labelled as tetravalent vaccine easy four.
Mandi alleged that as the contents differed on the outer and inner labels, the drug was not labelled in the prescribed manner as specified in Rule 96 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945. The outer carton label made a false claim for the drug, which was misleading as the drug was misbranded, Mandi added.
On Thursday, shares of Panacea Biotec ended flat at INR 336.15 on the National Stock Exchange. End
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Ashish Shirke
For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.
Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.
Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000
Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com
© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.
To read more please subscribe
Share this Story:
