Delhi High Court refuses interim relief to pharma colleges against moratorium

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a plea for interim relief against a moratorium on the opening of new pharmacy colleges for diploma as well as degree courses for a period of five years, beginning from the academic session 2020-21.

A division bench of Justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Asha Menon, however, asked the single judge bench to prepone the hearing of the petition against the validity of the moratorium to enable them to admit the students for the academic session 2021-22, if the colleges succeeded in the matter.

The moratorium was ordered on July 17, 2019, with the exception of government colleges and those in the northeast region, taking into consideration the availability of a sufficiently qualified pharmacist workforce.

A number of private colleges contended that they have started raising infrastructure for establishing an institution to impart education in pharmacy, prior to the date of the moratorium. Owing to the prevalent pandemic, their plea could not be taken up.

The single judge declined the interim plea for admission of students for the academic session 2020-21. The colleges, namely Jagannath Institute of Pharmacy and others, contended that the Pharmacy Council of India had no power to impose a moratorium arbitrarily as establishing colleges was a long process involving setting up buildings, labs, classrooms and hiring of faculty members.

The division bench, however, said that besides the fact that the petitioners failed to prove irreparable loss and injury and balance of convenience in their favour, they also did not satisfy the interest of the public and particularly of the students who may, without knowing the full consequences, seek admission, putting their careers at stake.