Court fines applicants who opposed use of homoeopathic drug against Covid-19

PUNE A city court has levied a fine of Rs 10,000 against two applicants, including a doctor, for filing case against civic officials for violating human rights by

PUNE A city court has levied a fine of Rs 10,000 against two applicants, including a doctor, for filing case against civic officials for violating human rights by distributing and promoting the use of arsenicum album 30, a homoeopathic drug prescribed for the treatment Covid-19 (coronavirus) infection.

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The two applicants Adam Beig (57) member of Care of Public Safety, public trust and his co-applicant Dr Abhishek Haridas (37), residents of Kothrud, had filed a case against Pune district collector and Pune municipal commissioner for violating human rights of residents.

The order by principal district and sessions judge SR Navandar, dismissing the application, read, “The application is hereby dismissed with costs of Rs 10,000 to be paid to District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Pune. If the applicants fail to pay the costs, jointly or severally, the same be recovered from them as land revenue.”

The applicant has claimed to not have received a copy of the order.

Haridas, “There were applications in the Kerela and Madras High Courts about use of homoeopathic medicine. The orders show that the courts have asked only for modern medicine to be used.”

“Here politicians and PMC officials are distributing the drug without any medical inspection. The drugs have been distributed to Covid-19 patients and healthy people as well. My application was neither civil nor criminal, it was about human rights violation,” he said.

The order further read: “From the conduct and approach of the applicants, what appears is that by taking undue advantage of the existing situation of pandemic they made an attempt to get cheap publicity.”

“Thereby they have taken a lot of time of the court, particularly when the court is busy in dealing with important urgent bail applications of jail inmates and injunction matters. Such conduct on the part of the mischievous applicants needs to be curbed by imposing exemplary costs,” reads one of the concluding portions of the court order.

In a Press Information Bureau (PIB) press release issued by Ayush Ministry on January 29, the drug is recommended for use in consultation with registered Ayurvedic practitioners.

“The Group of Expertsinter-alia has recommended that homoeopathy medicine arsenicum album 30 could be taken as prophylactic medicine against Covid-19 infections, which has also been advised for prevention of ILI (influenza-like illness),” it reads.

However, the court order by Judge Navandar reads, “In the documents submitted on behalf of the applicants, said medicine is referred to as an immunity riser and not as a vaccine or antidote for Covid-19 virus.”

The said medicine has been distributed among officials of various government offices in the city to boost their immunity.