Centre's stand sought on PIL for QR codes on medicinal, food products

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought the Centre's stand on a public interest litigation seeking affixation of QR codes on all medicinal and food products to make them accessible to the visually impaired.

A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad issued notice to the central government, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and Drugs Technical Advisory Board on the petition by The Kapila and Nirmal Hingorani Foundation as well as Dr Smriti Singh and Shobhan Singh, both visually impaired.

Lawyer Aman Hingorani, representing the petitioners, said a smartphone with accessibility feature can scan the Quick Response (QR) code containing requisite information about the product and then convert the same to speech format for the benefit of the visually impaired.

The court was informed that last year, the Centre mandated the affixing of Bar Code or QR code containing certain information on specified medicinal products and the same showed that desirability, feasibility and the capability of the authorities to provide for the affixation of QR codes on products.

In the petition filed through lawyer Shweta Hingorani, the petitioners stated that employing QR codes would increase the efficacy of medical care for visually impaired patients by reducing medication errors, incorrect dosages, unintended drug interactions and side effects as well as combat the growing menace of counterfeit and substandard medicine.

The petition added that visually impaired persons have the constitutional and fundamental right to equality, life with dignity and there was a huge scope for utilising the capabilities of smartphones along with QR codes to help them identify products and access all relevant product information.

"In order to secure effective access to medicines, food, cosmetics and other consumer products, it has become imperative and expedient to affix Quick Response (QR) codes in a proper manner and containing the requisite information so that a smartphone with accessibility feature could then scan the QR Code with its stored data or information about the particular product, and decode it to convert the text to speech format of the application," the petition said.

"Comprehensive measures or guidelines on the affixing of QR codes on medicines, food, cosmetics and other consumer products simply do not exist in the country. The respondent authorities have, to the best knowledge of the petitioner Nos. 2 and 3, failed to take comprehensive measures or frame comprehensive guidelines in this regard," stated the plea.

The petition prayed for directions to the Centre to secure effective access for visually impaired persons to medicines, food, cosmetics and other consumer products by taking comprehensive measures on affixing QR codes on such products.