The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking direction to the Central India, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and NITI Aayog regarding reconsideration of the prevalent treatment protocol for a mild case of COVID-19 and modify the treatment protocol in COVID-19.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma, appearing for the Central government, opposed the petition.
The Bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh dismissed the petition and also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the petitioner.
Vivek Sheel Aggarwal (Chairman, Niramaya Research) along with Dr Sanjay Jain (MS, Orthopaedics), Dr Anu Garg (MD, Paediatrics) and Bhasvar Aggarwal (Independent Researcher) are the petitioners in the PIL filed through advocates Praveen K Sharma and Amitesh Bakshi.
The petition demanded to restrict the use of Paracetamol, Antibiotics and Steroids in the treatment of COVID-19. The petitioners sought the court’s intervention “as rampant use of these medicines is wreaking havoc on the immune system of the body of any individual”.
Appearing for petitioners, Advocate Sacchin Puri highlighted the fact that no clinical trial on the efficacy and safety of antipyretics usage in the treatment and management of viral infections has been done till recently.
It also states that all the medical literature and also clinical trials in animals, suggest against the use of it and appeal to hold clinical trials.
“The new hypothesis by Niramaya Research suggests that the immunomodulatory effects of the medication being prescribed tamper and damage the homeostatic mechanism of the human immune system leading to complications and shows the correlation of the same complications in COVID-19 related Mortalities,” the plea stated.
It also stated that the treatment protocol issued by the ICMR and practiced by doctors is totally in contrast to what the researches in top medical journals suggest that “disruption of Homeostatic Mechanisms of Immune system is caused due to the treatment protocol in mild to moderate cases in Covid-19: High Dosage of Paracetamol leads to GSH depletion, increase in oxidative stress and disruption of Homeostatic mechanisms of the immune system”.
