TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (7) TMI 859
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....5 crores towards the demand made by the respondent authorities, this Court directed status quo to be maintained in relation to recovery of the remaining sum payable by the appellant, vide order dated 10.11.2014. 3. Challenge in W.P.(C) No. 10700 of 2005, filed by the appellant before the Delhi High Court, was to the demand notices dated 08.02.2005 and 13.06.2005. By order dated 13.07.2005, a learned Judge dismissed the said writ petition. The appellant, thereupon, filed L.P.A. No. 1629 of 2005 but the appeal met with the same fate when a Division Bench of the High Court dismissed it by the impugned judgment dated 06.08.2014. 4. The issue for consideration is whether the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (for brevity, 'the NPPA....
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....finitions in the DPCO may be noted at this stage. Paragraph 2(d) of the DPCO defines 'dealer' as under: ' 'Dealer' means a person on the business of purchase or sale of drugs, whether as a wholesaler or retailer and whether or not in conjunction with any other business and includes his agent.' Paragraph 2(e) of the DPCO defines 'distributor' thus: ' 'Distributor' means a distributor of drugs or his agent or a stockist appointed by a manufacturer or an importer for stocking his drugs for sale to a dealer.' Paragraph 2(y) defines "wholesaler" as follows: ' 'Wholesaler' means a dealer or his agent or a stockist appointed by a manufacturer or an importer for the sale of his drugs to a retailer, hospital, disp....
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....y the appellant before it for the first time and that the writ petition as well as the memorandum of appeal were bereft of any pleadings to that effect. Therefore, the appellant cannot be permitted to raise that plea before us at this stage. 8. Further, we do not even find a specific ground having been raised on that issue. The learned counsel for the appellant would refer to Grounds H and Y in the appeal in this regard, but we find the said grounds are general in nature and do not focus on the computation made in the context of Paragraph 19 of the DPCO. Reliance placed on the decision of the Allahabad High Court in TC Health Care Private Limited and others vs. Union of India and others 2010 (5) ADJ 401 is, therefore, misplaced as we fin....
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...., would be a wholesaler or retailer who undertakes the purchase or sale of the drug while a 'distributor', as defined thereunder, would include a distributor of the drugs or a stockist appointed by a manufacturer. Though the definition of 'wholesaler' under Paragraph 2(y) of the DPCO blurs the distinction between a 'dealer' and a 'distributor', by including a dealer as well as a stockist appointed by a manufacturer, the fact remains that a 'distributor' under Paragraph 2(c) of the DPCO has links with the manufacturer directly while a 'dealer' does not, as he obtains his supply of drugs from the said 'distributor'. It is obvious that the definitions of 'distributor' and 'dealer' under the DPCO are not mutually exclusive and it is very much p....