Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954
The Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 is an Act No. 21 of 1954 (Section 1) of the Act of the Parliament of India that controls India, and it extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir. It prohibits advertisement of drugs and remedies that claim to have magical properties and make doing so a cognizable offence, and it was came into force by Gazette notification on 1st April 1955.
Drug
. It includes any substance intended to be used for or in the diagnosis, cure, or mitigation.
. The treatment of prevention of sickness in humans and animals. Any article other than food that is designed to affect or influence in any way the structure or any organic function of the human or animal body, as well as any article intended to be used as a component of any medicine, substance or article mentioned above.
Magic Remedy
Talisman, Mantras, Amulet, or any other object claimed to have miraculous powers to diagnose, cure, prevent or mitigate a disease in humans or animals, or for changing or modifying the structure or any organic function of the human or animal’s body in any way.
Advertisement
Any notice, circular, label, wrapper, or other document, as well as any announcement delivered orally or by any means of producing or transmitting light, sound, or smoke falls under this category.
** The law prohibits the advertising of drug and remedies for-
. Including miscarriage or preventing conception in women.
. Improving or maintaining the capacity for sexual pleasure.
. Correcting menstrual disorders.
. Curing, diagnosing, or preventing any disease or condition mentioned in an included schedule.
The originally included schedule contained a list of 54 diseases and conditions, but I am sharing only a few: –
- Appendicitis
- Blindness
- Blood Poisioning
- Cancer
- Diabetes
- Disease and Disorders of brain
- Female diseases ( in general)
- Fever
- Gall stones, kidney stones and bladder stones
- Heart diseases
- High/low Blood pressure
- Infanite paralysis
- Nervous debility
- Paralysis
- Pneumonia
- Sexual impotence
- Sterility in women
- Tumours
- Typhoid fever, etc.
The act stated that the schedule may be changed later to include more diseases for which there are no accepted remedies or for which timely consultation with a registered medical practitioner is required.
The penalty carries up to 6 months imprisonment on first conviction and up to 1 year on subsequent conviction for violations of Act.
Criticism and future amendments
The law is rarely enforced, and several such products are freely available to the public. It is considered almost 14 of diseases on the list and now curable, and newer diseases like AIDS are not on the list. Some advertisements of these categories also appear on cable television with the little repercussions. This Act also raised a questions regarding the status of traditional medicine systems like Ayurveda and Yoga concerning modern medicine.
Source: – Wikipedia
Written By: – Rajat Ranjan
