New Delhi: In a setback to two persons from Andhra Pradesh claiming to be inventors of an Ayurvedic medicine for curing AIDS, the Delhi High Court on December 12 dismissed their petition challenging the provisions of drugs and cosmetics rule denying them grant of licence for their herbal Medicine, 'Immuno Herbal Sanjeevi'.

A Bench comprising Justice B A Khan and Justice C K Mahajan dismissed the petition stating that it was premature as their application for grant of licence was pending with the licencing authority in Hyderabad.

However, the court gave them the liberty that if any of their grievances were left unaddressed by the licensing authority they could approach the court.

The petitioners A M Krishna, a doctorate holder in Law and advocate in Supreme Court and Chilaveri Bhoomeshwar, had claimed that they had invented a herbal medicine 'Immuno Herbal Sanjeevi' for curing AIDS and tested it on some patients successfully.

However, they had said they were deprived of the licence for the medicine because of the Rule 106 read with schedule (J) of the drugs and cosmetic rules that prevent persons other than those associated with medicinal field to be granted licence.

The petitioners had contended that the rule was violative of Article 19 and 21 of the Constitution as it takes away the rights of both inventors and sufferers of AIDS disease.

However, government counsel Pratibha Singh opposed their petition saying that their application for grant of licence was pending with the licensing authority and occasion had not yet arisen to challenge Rule 106 of the drugs and cosmetic rule.

During the last hearing, Bhoomeshwar had claimed to have inherited Ayurvedic traditional practice from his mother, and sought with Krishna the constitution of a committee to test the genuineness of the medicine after the court had asked how could they have developed it since both were not associated with medicine field.

They had even agreed to the court proposal for depositing Rs one lakh for testing the genuineness of the medicine by putting a counter-condition that if the medicine after test were found to be genuine, government would pay them Rs 10 lakh.

The duo had also accepted the condition of filing the affidavits of the 30 AIDS patients whom they claimed to have cured along with all relevant documents associated with the invention.

PTI