NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday expressed concern over large number of deaths of children in Madhya Pradesh due to intake of contaminated cough syrups manufactured by a Tamil Nadu-based pharma company but refused to entertain a PIL seeking a court-monitored probe by an expert committee into the incident and steps for prevention of such incidents in future.As a bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran were mulling whether to entertain the PIL by advocate Vishal Tiwari, a serial PIL activist, solicitor general Tushar Mehta made a surprise intervention and said there is a system in place and every state government, be it Tamil Nadu or Madhya Pradesh – is alive to such situation.
“We must trust our states to take appropriate action. I am sure the governments of Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh are doing so. There is no denying that the issue is serious, but that is not a ground for the court to intervene without the petitioner, who habitually races to file PILs in SC based on media reports, pointing out the failure on part of the states to take remedial measures,” Mehta said.CJI Gavai asked the petitioner how many PILs he has filed. Tiwari said around 10. The bench then dismissed the PIL, which alleged that though 14 children died in MP in September due to intake of the spurious cough syrup manufactured by a TN-based firm, the Centre and Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation failed to issue an immediate nation-wide recall or ban on the cough syrup which might have allowed circulation of the product in many states.
