Supreme Court dismisses PIL plea seeking inquiry, reforms after death of children due to consuming cough syrup

The plea, among other things, sought CBI investigation into the death of children in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking an inquiry and systemic reform in drug safety mechanisms in the wake of deaths of children in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, allegedly due to consumption of toxic cough syrups.

A bench of Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and K Vinod Chandran dismissed the plea filed by advocate Vishal Tiwari after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta objected to it, saying the petitioner read the newspaper and rushed to the court.

The bench, which was initially of the view that the notice should be issued, later dismissed the petition.

Mehta said he was not appearing for any State at the moment, but the seriousness with which States like Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh were taking actions cannot be undermined. Moreover, there are proper law enforcement mechanisms in States, he added.

The bench asked Tiwari as to how many PIL petitions he had filed so far in the top court.

On being told that he had moved eight to 10 such pleas so far, the bench dismissed the instant petition.

The plea sought the CBI investigation into the death of children in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan after the consumption of toxic cough syrup.

It sought a court-monitored probe into the incidents and urged the constitution of a national judicial commission or an expert committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge.

The PIL plea also asked the top court that all pending FIRs and investigations concerning the deaths of children caused by toxic cough syrups across States be transferred to the CBI.

The petitioner said such inaction represents a catastrophic regulatory failure, drawing parallels to the 2022 incidents in Gambia and Uzbekistan, where Indian-made syrups were linked to the deaths of over 90 children.

"The World Health Organization (WHO) had, at the time, issued global alerts warning India about the risk of DEG and ethylene glycol (EG) contamination, and called for systemic reform," the petition said.

It contended that these warnings went unheeded, as India still lacked any uniform pre-release testing or a national drug recall policy.