January 2024

New Delhi, The Delhi High Court has set aside an order upholding the Central Information Commission’s (CIC) direction to telecom regulator TRAI to collect and furnish information under RTI proceedings about the alleged tapping of a mobile user’s phone. A bench headed by Justice Vibhu Bakhru allowed an appeal filed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) against a single-judge bench order and said an act of surveillance is carried out under the government’s directions and in the interest of the country’s sovereignty and integrity, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states or public order, or for preventing incitement to the commission of an offence, and is exempted under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. “Any orders passed by the government concerned in relation to interception or tapping or tracking of a phone is passed when the authorised officer is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient to do so in the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states or public order, or for preventing incitement to the commission of an offence,” the bench, also comprising Justice Amit Mahajan, said in a recent order. “In a given case, the disclosure of any such information, therefore, may impede the process of investigation and may be construed to prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, the strategic, scientific and economic interest of the State, relations with foreign states or lead to incitement of an offence, and would therefore be exempted from disclosure under the terms of section 8 of the RTI Act,” the court concluded. It further said phone tapping does not fall under the affairs of telecom service providers and the information sought also does not relate to the functions of the TRAI under the law. “Any contrary view would give the authority (TRAI) unbridled power to call for information and interfere with the functions of telecom service providers, and also would not be in consonance with the objects sought to be achieved by the TRAI Act,” the court said. It said the TRAI was established for the purpose of regulating telecom services to protect the interest of the service providers and consumers in the telecom sector, and to promote and ensure an orderly growth of the sector. The court noted that “information” under the RTI Act includes any information relating to any private body, which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force. The high court had, in August 2021, stayed the single-judge order, saying irreparable damage will be caused if the same was not done. Lawyer Kabir Shankar Bose had filed an RTI application seeking information and details on whether his phone was being tapped and by which agency. Dec 25,2023 Source: Economic Times

The government has acted promptly to do away with a rule to regulate advertisement of Ayush drugs just three months after this was recommended by a technical committee. However, the amendments to the Drugs and Magic Remedies (DMR) Act meant to strengthen regulation of drug advertisements, drafted three years back, remain in limbo. The omission of Rule 170, which was supposed to regulate advertisements for Ayush drugs, was recommended in May this year. It has been operationalised though the final notification of the omission has not happened yet. In response to a right to information query, Ayush ministry wrote that while “the final notification for omission of Rule 170 and its related provisions mentioned in the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 will take some time”, all licensing authorities in states and union territories have been “directed not to initiate/take any action under Rule 170”. The letter to states and union territories from the Ayush ministry was sent on August 29. Rule 170 had been brought in through an amendment to the rules after consultations with ASUDTAB (Ayurvedic, Siddha, Unani Drugs Technical Advisory Board) in response to an increasing number of misleading advertisements of Ayush products. The rule mandated that all advertisements for Ayush drugs would have to be previewed and cleared by the regulator before being publicised. In 2018, the Ayush minister revealed that the ministry had come across 804 instances of misleading advertisements or claims between April 2015 and January 2018. Pharmacovigilance centres of Ayush reported 1,127 cases of misleading advertisements from August 2018 to March 2019. However, less than a month after the new Rule 170 was gazetted, several manufacturers went to court against it and in January 2019 the Delhi high court stayed its operation. ASUDTAB took up the issue of omission of Rule 170. However, in its meeting in June 2022, according to the minutes of the meeting obtained through RTI, then DCGI, Dr VG Somani “suggested that, it is not ethical to omit the existing Rule in anticipation of its inclusion in the proposed amendment of DMR Act”. However, file notings given as part of an RTI response from the health ministry show that the proposed amendments to strengthen the DMR Act have been in limbo since November last year. “Drugs and Magic Remedies Act or the Consumer Protection Act can be invoked only after a misleading ad has appeared. Hardly any action gets taken when such complaints are filed and the cases drag on for years, by which time the intent of publishing such an ad will be met. Rule 170 was meant to be preventive. It would have prevented misleading ads from being published as these ads would first have to be cleared by the concerned state licensing authority. It is unfortunate that the government is buying the industry argument instead of working to protect public interest,” said Dr KV Babu, ophthalmologist and RTI activist. The Ayush ministry’s letter to the state licensing authorities shows that it has decided to go ahead with the recommendation of ASUDTAB following the meeting held on May 25 to proceed with final notification for omission of Rule 170. Dec 19,2023 Source: TOI

New Delhi, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday noted that the Centre has taken many pro-active steps in last few years to control retail prices of food items and said the government will keep inflation under control while ensuring country’s economic growth. He was addressing an event, organised by the ministry here, to celebrate National Consumers Day. “Today, India has become the fastest growing large economy. Going forward, we will keep inflation under check and also ensure economic growth,” Goyal said. Retail inflation inched up to a three-month high of 5.55 per cent in November driven by higher food prices, according to latest official data. The retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was at 4.87 per cent in October. Inflation had been declining since August when it touched 6.83 per cent. On steps taken by the central government, Goyal highlighted that 140 new price monitoring centres have been set up to keep a close watch on wholesale and retail prices of essential commodities. “Today, prices are being monitored at 550 (consuming) centres on a daily basis. This helps in insulating consumers from price rise,” Goyal said. In the last two years, he said, when the entire world witnessed very high inflation, especially in the food items, India was able to control inflation through pro-active fiscal and monetary policies. “Whenever inflation (in some commodity) started rising, the government took pro-active measures and controlled it.” Goyal cited measures taken by the Centre to control price rise in tomatoes and onions in a short period of time. The government sold tomatoes and onions through retail outlets of NCCF, NAFED and Kendriya Bhandar as well as mobile vans. In case of onion, he said the government is buying onions from farmers to create buffer stock and ensure they get a fair price of their produce. He also highlighted that the Centre is selling Bharat Dal at Rs 60 per kg and Bharat atta at Rs 27.50 per kg to provide relief to common man. The government has banned exports of wheat, broken rice, non-basmati white rice and onions. It has also reduced import duties on edible oils and pulses to boost domestic supply and control price rise. Talking about consumer protection issues, Goyal appreciated the work done by his ministry and National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) to resolve consumers’ grievances. He stressed on the need to clear backlong of cases pending at consumer courts at national, state and district levels. “We are all collectively working for better consumer satisfaction,” he said, adding that the country will progress if consumers would be satisfied. Dec 24,2023 Source: Economic Times

Consumer protection regulator CCPA on Tuesday said it is ready with draft guidelines specifying “dos and don’ts” to prevent coaching institutes from making “false claims” in advertisements regarding success rates of candidates. The draft guidelines will be approved and issued soon, Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) Chief Commissioner and Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh told PTI. Singh, who headed the committee that prepared the draft guidelines, said several meetings were held for drafting the guidelines and the recent one was on January 8. Asserting that protection of consumer’s interest is a paramount concern for CCPA, Singh highlighted the need for clarity, specifically in addressing certain aspects related to advertisements with respect to coaching centers. “The committee observed that there is an urgent need to issue the guidelines and the draft as discussed in the (January 8) meeting should be issued at the earliest,” the CCPA said in a statement. According to the CCPA, the proposed guidelines will be applicable to all the coaching institutes, whether online or physical, and will cover all forms of advertisement regardless of form, format or medium. The draft guidelines prescribe conditions when an advertisement by a coaching institute will be construed to be a misleading advertisement under the Consumer Protection Act 2019 which inter-alia include concealing information related to the course opted by the successful candidates (whether free or paid) and duration of course, among others. As per the proposed guidelines, coaching institutes should not make false claims regarding success rates or number of selections and any other practices that may lead to consumer misunderstanding or subvert consumer autonomy and choice. Before coming up with advertisements, coaching institutes are required to follow “dos and don’ts”. For instance, coaching institute should mention requisite information along with the photo of a successful candidate. Details such as rank, type and duration of course and whether free or paid course need to be mentioned along with the photo of a successful candidate, according to the statement. Jan 09,2024 Source: Economic Times