DRUG AND MAGIC REMIDES ACT 1954, RULES, PROHIBITIONS, CASE STUDY

1. Presented by :
Miss Harshita singhai
DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES
DR. HARISINGH GOUR VISHWAVIDYALAYA SAGAR (M.P.)
( A CENTRAL UNIVERSITY )
Drugs and Magic Remedies Act, 1954
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2. Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• DEFINITIONS
• EXEMPTIONS
• CASE STUDY
• PROHIBITIONS
• REFERENCES
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3. Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement)
Act, 1954 (‘DMRA’)
DRMA was enacted in the year 1954 with the object to
control/prohibit the advertisement of drugs and remedies with claim
to possess magic qualities in certain cases. ‘Drug’, ‘Magic
Remedies’, and ‘Advertisement’ are key terms defined under DMRA.
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6. Magic Remedy
‘Magic Remedy’ is defined to include talisman, mantra, kavacha, and
any other charm which is alleged to possess miraculous powers of
diagnosing, curing, prevention, etc. of certain diseases.
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7. Drug
‘Drug’ is defined to include any medicine, substance or device, article
affecting organic structure of humans or animals, or any component of
it.
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8. Advertisement
‘Advertisement’ under the
DMRA can be in any form,
such as a notice, circular,
wrapper,label, announcement
(oral, smoke or light) or any
other document.
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9. • As per the new definition
advertisement of drugs for
fairness, improvement of height,
increase in brain capacity,
improvement of vision,
improvement of strength of natural
teeth, improvement in size and
shape of sexual organs, and in
sexual performance, etc. would be
prohibited.
• Accordingly, advertising fairness
creams, health drinks for
increasing height or vision or
memory, would come under the
scanner.
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10. Exemption
• In exercise of this power, the Central Government in the year
1961 issued a notification giving exemption to advertisement
of government-approved contraceptives. Thus, condoms being
male contraceptives, would be covered under this notification,
if government approved.
• Subsequently, in 1992, the Central Government vide
notification in public interest also exempted advertisement of
chemical contraceptives of a certain composition for oral use.
• However, in 2017, this exemption w.r.t. condom
advertisements were regulated, to the extent, it related to
advertisement on television channels, by a notification of the
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.
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12. • In February this year, the health
ministry had released the draft
of Drugs and Magic Remedies
(Objectionable Advertisements)
(Amendment) Bill, 2020.
• This draft bill added 24 new diseases
and disorders to the schedule, which
earlier had 54 diseases. These
include drugs or treatment for
enhancing sexual performance,
fairness of skin, premature ageing,
and improvement in height of kids
and adults.
• The proposed amendments also
increased the penalty for first
conviction to 2 years and fine up to
Rs 10 lakh. A second conviction
would lead to an imprisonment of up
to 5 years and fine up to Rs 50 lakh.
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13. In February 2020, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, probably
respecting the collective consciousness and will of the nation, put forth a
proposal before the Parliament (‘Bill’) to amend the old Drugs and
Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act, 1954 (‘DMRA’).
The main intent behind this Bill seems to be to curb promotion or
advertisement of the so-called ‘quintessential image of a human’. Even
before the enactment of the proposed Bill, some of the FMCG giants in
India seemed to have embraced the proposed change – one of the leading
FMCGs has renamed ‘Fair & Lovely’ products as ‘Glow & Lovely.
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14. All about Magic Remedies Act, law that landed Patanjali
in trouble over Covid ‘cure’ drug
• The ministry can ask the drug manufacturer,
etc. to furnish information “regarding the
composition of the drug or the ingredients
thereof or any other information in regard to
that drug as he deems necessary for holding
the scrutiny of the advertisement and where
any such order is made”.
• The AYUSH ministry has done exactly this. It
has asked Patanjali to provide details of the
“name and composition of the medicines
being claimed for Covid treatment;
site(s)/hospital(s), where the research study
was conducted for Covid-19; protocol,
sample size, Institutional Ethics Committee
clearance, CTRI registration and results data
of the study (ies)”.
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16. Prohibition
There is a general prohibition under the DMRA for misleading and
false advertisements. Additionally, advertisements of drugs or magic
remedies, which suggest procurement of miscarriage, prevention of
conception, maintenance or improvement of sexual pleasure,
correction of menstrual disorder or diagnosis, cure, mitigation,
treatment or prevention of any disease/disorder mentioned in the
Schedule of DMRA or the Rules made thereunder, are prohibited
under the Act.
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17. Prohibition of advertisement of certain drugs for treatment of
certain diseases and disorders.
• No person shall take any part in the publication of any advertisement
lead to the use of that drug for--
(a) the procurement of miscarriage in women or prevention of
conception in women; or
(b) the maintenance or improvement of the capacity of human beings
for sexual pleasure; or
(c) the correction of menstrual disorder in women; or
(d) the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of any
disease, disorder or condition specified in the Schedule, under this
Act.
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20. Prohibition of misleading advertisements relating to
drugs
• No person shall take any part in the publication of any
advertisement relating to a drug if the advertisement contains
any matters which--
• (a) directly or indirectly gives a false impression regarding the
true character of the drug; or
(b) makes a false claim for the drug; or
(c) is otherwise false or misleading in any material particular.
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21. Prohibition of advertisement of magic remedies for
treatment of certain diseases and disorders.
• No person carrying on or purporting to carry on the profession
of administering magic remedies shall take any part in the
publication of any advertisement referring to any magic
remedy which directly or indirectly claims to be efficacious for
any of the purposes specified in section 3
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22. Prohibition of import into, and export from, India of
certain advertisements
No person shall import into, or export from, the territories to which
this Act extends any documents containing an advertisement of the
nature referred to in section 3 or in section 4 or section 5, and any
document containing any such advertisements shall be deemed to be
goods of which the import or export has been prohibited under section
19 of the Sea Customs Act, 1878 (8 of 1878), and all the provisions of
that Act shall have effect accordingly, except that section 183 thereof
shall have effect as if for the word 'shall' therein the word 'may' were
substituted
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23. Penalty
• Whoever contravenes any of the provisions of this Act 1[or the
rules made thereunder] shall, on conviction, be punishable--
• (a) in the case of the first conviction, with imprisonment which
may extend to six months, or with fine, or with both;
(b) in the case of a subsequent conviction, with imprisonment
which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.
• The proposed amendments also increased the penalty for first
conviction to 2 years and fine up to Rs 10 lakh. A second
conviction would lead to an imprisonment of up to 5 years and
fine up to Rs 50 lakh.
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24. Who has been punished in the past?
• In June last year, the Travancore Cochin Medical Council
had suspended for a month the registration of an Ayurvedic doctor
after finding him guilty of violating the Act. This was after the
council received complaints about the doctor advertising the cure
for various ailments through his treatment of “thulli marannu”
(oral drops).
• In 2016, the Maharashtra Medical Council of India
had suspended for 3 months registrations of a Colaba-based doctor
couple running an IVF clinic following complaints that they made
promises of guaranteed pregnancy on their website and even
offered refund if the treatment failed.
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25. Powers of entry, search, etc.
(1) Any Gazetted Officer authorised by the State Government may,
within the local limits of the area for which he is so authorised,--
(a) enter and search at all reasonable times, with such assistants, if any,
as he considers necessary, any place in which he has reason to believe
that an offence under this Act has been or is being committed;
(b) seize any advertisement which he has reason to believe
contravenes any of the provisions of this Act:
(c) examine any record, register, document or any other material
object found in any place and seize if punishable under this Act.
(2) The provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (5 of 1898),
shall, so far as may be, apply to any search or seizure under this Act as
they apply to search or seizure made under the authority of a warrant
issued under section 98 or the said Code.
(3) Where any person seizes anything under clause (b) or clause (c) of
sub-section (1), he shall, as soon as may be, inform a Magistrate and
take his orders as to the custody thereof.
.
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26. Offences by companies
• 1) If a company, every person who, at the time the offence was
committed , was in charge of, and was responsible to, the
company for the conduct of the business of the company as well
as the company shall be deemed to be guilty of the
contravention and shall be liable to be proceeded against, and
punished accordingly.
• 2)Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall
render any such person liable to any punishment provided in this
act if he proves that the offence was committed without his
knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the
commission of such offence.
Explanation.--For the purposes of this section,--
(a) 'company' means any body corporate and includes a firm or
other association of individuals; and
(b) 'director' in relation to a firm means a partner in the firm
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27. REFERENCES
• JAIN N.K. “ A TEXTBOOK OF FORENSIC PHARMACY ” , 2015,
ED: 8, BY VALLABH PRAKASHAN,PG.NO. 271-281.
• https://www.slideshare.net/madhu56799/drug-and-magic-
remedies-act-1954
• https://www.medindia.net/indian_health_act/the-drugs-and-
magic-remedies-act-1955.htm
• https://drugscontrol.py.gov.in/drugsmagicact.html
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28. THANK YOU
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