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Despite several laws, quacks continue to dupe vulnerable consumers, writes Pushpa Girimaji Despite half a dozen laws, R. K. Gupta of Neeraj Clinic, Rishikesh, managed to dupe thousands of vulnerable consumers by claiming that he would cure them of epilepsy. He even had the gumption to issue huge advertisements on the front pages of national dailies. On television, he came up with "testimonials" from the people who, the advertisements claimed, had been cured of epilepsy. The entire episode should make all our law enforcement agencies hang their heads in shame. Despite several laws meant to protect consumers from such frauds, Gupta not only ran his "clinic", but flourished. There can be no better example than this to highlight the administration’s failure to protect the consumers. Finally, a case has been registered against him under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, on the ground that the drugs he administered contained narcotics in high quantities. But what took the Uttaranchal Government so long to act? Why did they allow him to exploit the vulnerability of thousands of people suffering from epilepsy? Gupta has alleged that action has been taken against him because he did not pay Rs 10 lakh as bribe to the officials of the Health Department. This is also an issue that needs to be investigated, while looking into the failure of the law enforcement officials to put stop to Gupta’s practice — was he paying them all these years to keep quiet? This suspicion gets stronger when one considers the fact that as long back as in 2000, the Indian Medical Association had declared him a quack after a committee had found that he was giving his patients toxic drugs in high doses. What is most distressing is that in most cases such as this, it is not the government that takes stringent action to protect consumers before they are duped. It is the consumers themselves who eventually seek the intervention of the law court to force the administration to act. In fact in July last year, the Delhi High Court had issued contempt notices to the Delhi Government for failing to act on its directive to stringently enforce the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act. Earlier, in response to a public interest litigation filed by Mr S.C.Jain, the Delhi High Court had directed the government to take action against those making false health claims, but the direction obviously had had no effect because Mr Jain had to once again go the court to report inaction on the part of the government. In fact, the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954, has been specifically enacted to prevent advertisements such as the ones used by Gupta. And the Schedule under the Act lists out 54 diseases, disorders or conditions for which it prohibits magic remedies or cures and epilepsy is one of them. The law also prescribes imprisonment of six months or fine or both, for first conviction. Today there are any number of such quacks claiming cures for anything from diabetes and high blood pressure to rheumatism, arthritis and even AIDS. In fact about two years ago, the Kerala High Court had come down heavily on the government for allowing quacks to exploit the vulnerability of those suffering from AIDS. Under the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act as well as the Consumer Protection Act, those who make such false and misleading claims can be hauled up and forced to issue corrective advertisements. In addition, those who suffered on account of such unfair practices can also be compensated. However, while the consumer courts can take action against such claims only on a complaint filed before them, the MRTP Commission as well as the Office of the Director General (Investigation and Registration) can act on their own, investigate into such claims and put stop to them. Given the seriousness of the problem and the consequences of consuming ‘medicines’ administered by quacks, the government should desist from winding up the MRTPC as proposed. Instead, it should set up state Benches and strengthen its investigative wing and empower it to tackle exclusively, unfair trade practices in general and false and misleading health cures, in particular. And those who indulge in such practices should not only be stopped in their track, but also forced to issue corrective advertisements and made to pay huge amounts as compensation to the victims, besides costs to the MRTPC. |
