Health NGO network calls for withdrawal of cases against Lawyers Collective

All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN), the group of healthcare-focused activists and NGOs, condemned the FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation against office bearers of the Lawyers Collective (LC).

The FIR was lodged against LC President Anand Grover and Secretary Indira Jaising - both also senior Supreme Court advocates.

LC is a group of lawyers who claim to change the status of marginalised groups through the effective use of the law, and engagement in human rights advocacy, legal aid and litigation.

Calling the CBI's case against them as 'gross abuse of governmental power', AIDAN demanded that the case be immediately withdrawn in public interest.

The CBI earlier in June filed cases against LC and its office bearers including Grover and Jaising for alleged violation of rules in receiving foreign aid and discrepancies in the utilisation, based on a complaint raised by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The group however denied any such violations, and said in a statement that the "proceedings were taken against it because its office bearers had taken up sensitive cases against leading figures of the BJP and the government."

The group actively uses the law as a tool to address critical issues such as domestic violence, sexual harassment at the workplace, matrimonial and family-related matters, crimes against women particularly sexual assault and reproductive rights, rights of the LGBTQ community, access to medicine and healthcare.

AIDAN said LC's consistent work on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issue from public health and public interest perspective is deeply valued by health organisations, all over India and the world

In the sphere of public health and IPR, LC took the landmark case against Novartis which ended the monopoly of Swiss drug behemoth in India for production of the anti-cancer medicine imatinib for Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia, resulting in increased Indian patient access to imatinib at much lesser price, by defending Section 3d of India's Patent Act 1970 – a provision that prevents evergreening of patents.

"Generations of patients in India would be grateful to Lawyer's Collective for this affirmation of Section 3d.," AIDAN said.

Grover was also the UN Special Rapporteur on Right to Health from August 2008 to July 2014 and is currently an acting member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy and is a member of the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human rights.

"As UN Special Rapporteur on Health, he was involved with bringing out several eye-opening reports. His report on junk food, ... and its association with Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) is an important document," AIDAN said.

Original Source: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/health-trends/health-ngo-network-calls-for-withdrawal-of-cases-against-lawyers-collective-4130541.html