Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940
Definition
Central statute governing the import, manufacture, sale and distribution of drugs and cosmetics in India. Read with the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules 1945, which carry the operative schedules.
- Jurisdiction
- India
- Scope
- Import, manufacture, sale, distribution of drugs and cosmetics
- Read with
- Drugs and Cosmetics Rules 1945
- Rules carry
- Operative schedules
Common questions
Why does forensic toxicology casework refer to this Act rather than the IPC or BNS?+
The Act and its Rules define what counts as a scheduled drug, spurious drug, or misbranded product and set the regulatory standards a substance is tested against, so a forensic chemist confirming a seized or counterfeit medicine's status relies on this framework before any criminal charge under general penal law is framed.
What is the practical difference between the Act and the 1945 Rules for a lab report?+
The 1940 Act sets out the offences and enforcement structure, while the 1945 Rules contain the detailed schedules, such as which substances are prescription-only or classified as narcotic, that a laboratory report must reference to state whether a seized sample falls within a regulated category.
Related terms
- CDSCO
- Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, headquartered in Delhi, headed by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). The federal regulator under the...
- NDPS Act 1985
- India's Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985, the primary statute governing drug offences, establishing small and commercial quantity thresholds that determine...
- Poison Act 1919
- Seventeen-section central statute empowering state governments to notify substances as 'poisons' and to license their sale, possession and import. Still in force.
- Schedule H
- List of prescription drugs under the 1945 Rules; sold only on a registered medical practitioner's prescription. Includes most antibiotics, sedatives, antipsychotics and...
- Schedule H1
- Forty-six substances notified by the 2013 amendment (Drugs and Cosmetics Fourth Amendment Rules, 2013, GSR 588(E) dated 30 August 2013, in force...
- Schedule X
- Psychotropic substances and narcotics notified under the 1945 Rules. Stored under double lock, register retained for two years, copy of prescription retained.