Introduction 

The Kapila & Nirmal Hingorani Foundation, along with professors Dr. Smriti Singh and Shobhan Singh from Delhi University, filed a public interest litigation (PIL) lawsuit. According to the petitioner, people who are blind or visually impaired have trouble recognising medications and finding all pertinent product information. These issues were made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, and the ongoing ineffectiveness of access to consumer goods like food, medicine, and cosmetics amounts to a violation of both their constitutional rights under Article 21 and their statutory rights under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016.

The petitioner further stated that It has become necessary and practical to affix Quick Response (QR) Codes in the appropriate way and with the necessary information to ensure effective access to medications, food, cosmetics, and other consumer products. A smartphone with accessibility features can then scan the QR Code with its stored data or information about the specific product, and decode it to convert the text-to-speech format of the application. According to the argument, utilising QR Codes will improve the effectiveness of medical care for visually impaired patients. The effectiveness of medical care for visually impaired patients would rise if QR Codes were used in the way and form described in the Petition because it would decrease medication errors, improper dosages, unwanted drug interactions, and adverse effects. Additionally, QR Codes could enable text-to-speech in regional languages using Google Translate or similar resources, allowing the user to select the language of the instruction. In addition, petitioners said that carrying out these measures will make it easier for patients who are blind or have other language barriers to take their medications on time each day.

The petition claims that using QR Codes would have several social, economic, and environmental advantages in addition to their significant medical advantages. Additionally, the use of QR Codes on pharmaceutical products could aid in the fight against the rising problem of fake and subpar medications, which not only pose a serious risk to the public’s health but also cost reputable pharmaceutical companies money and destroy their reputations.

Conclusion of Court 

The Delhi High Court’s division bench, which was composed of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad, gave notice to the Central government and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in response to a petition asking for the inclusion of QR codes on all medications, food items, and cosmetics so that their information could be converted from text to speech for people who are blind. The petition asked for this so that the information could be read aloud to people who are blind.