Supreme Court asks about a ₹5,000 stent priced at ₹25,000 MRP

This note is NP EXPLAINS. The stamp is verified. It was re-checked at 10:40 am IST on 13 October 2026 and posted at 10:45 am IST. The hearing it records was on 12 October. An earlier pass, from web extracts, was about 8:00 am IST on 13 October. The 10:40 am check is the one this note uses for the notification.

The bench was Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta. The case is Kishan Chand Jain v. EMRB. What the bench flagged is a stent. The Times of India, Bar & Bench, The Economic Times and LiveLaw carry the same wording: price to retailer ₹5,000 but MRP ₹25,000. The Hindu's wording is not the same sentence. The Hindu reports a ₹5,000 stent sold by hospitals for more than ₹25,000. This note keeps both lines. It does not fold the hospital-sale line into the retailer-and-MRP line.

The Centre told the court of a 30% trade-margin cap on cancer drugs. The savings figure it gave is about ₹2,500 crore a year. The route it described is an NPPA notification, after a DGHS-led panel. The Hindu, LiveLaw and Bar & Bench are the reports for that account. The bench asked about other medicines and devices. The Economic Times reports that the court urged the government on price controls beyond cancer drugs. The screen's question is the same ask: what of the other medicines, and what of devices.

The Economic Times, LiveLaw and Bar & Bench also report a remark from the bench about a 16% margin. This note does not supply a longer quotation. The remark is recorded as those three outlets report it. Separately, the Solicitor General told the court that stents are already capped. That line is Bar & Bench.

The next hearing is 27 October. The Economic Times, Bar & Bench and LiveLaw report that date.

The 10:40 am IST recheck on 13 October found the NPPA notification not yet issued. The same recheck notes the 8 October PIB approval, and a DGHS list deadline of 14 October. Because the notification was not out, chemist prices had not changed as of that check. The caption's line is the same: the price at the chemist had not changed, and the NPPA notification was still pending.

The stamp on this note is verified for the hearing as those outlets report it. That is the stent figures, the Centre's account of the cancer-drug cap and the yearly savings, the ask about other medicines and devices, the Solicitor General's line that stents are already capped, and the 27 October date. The notification status is the 10:40 am check.

The cover is an NP typographic graphic. The price figures on it are the hearing figures above. No photograph is used.