Strict compliance for physician's sample exemption requires distinct packaging as well as clear marking; label alone is insufficient.

Physician's samples of medicines were held ineligible for exemption under the cited notifications because strict compliance required both distinct packaging from regular trade packs and clear marking as physician's samples. Marking the packs "not to be sold" alone was insufficient where the samples were not shown to be packed in a form easily distinguishable from trade packing. The exemption condition therefore failed, and the benefit of the notifications was denied.

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Issues: Whether physician's samples of medicines were entitled to the benefit of Notification Nos. 48/77 and 170/70 when the packs were marked "Physician's samples, not to be sold" but were not otherwise packed in a form distinctly different from regular trade packing.

Analysis: The condition in the notifications required two separate elements: the samples had to be packed in a form distinctly different from regular trade packing, and each smallest packing had to be clearly and conspicuously marked "Physician's sample, not to be sold". Marking alone was insufficient. The relevant test was whether the sample pack could be easily distinguished from the trade pack by its form, and not merely by an inscription on the label. Since the samples were only marked and were not shown to satisfy the distinct-packaging requirement, the exemption condition was not met.

Conclusion: The benefit of the notifications was not available to the physician's samples. The appeal failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Exemption notifications requiring both distinct packaging and conspicuous marking must be strictly complied with, and satisfaction of only the marking requirement does not confer the exemption.

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