Chemimart yesterday won the right to operate a pharmacy in Republic Street, Valletta – more than two decades after it first applied for the licence – in a judgement that was severely critical of the medical authorities.
The courts ordered the Chief Government Medical Officer and the Superintendent of Public Health to issue the licence within two months.
The judgment was delivered by Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco after the company claimed that it had first applied for the pharmacy licence in 1990 but had been thwarted in its requests for no valid reason at law.
In a strongly worded judgement, the judge lambasted the Superintendent for not conforming with the law.
The citizen, said the court, had a legal right to the issue of licences when applications were in conformity with the law. The issue of licences was not to be considered as a favour but as a right.
Reginald Fava, on behalf of Chemimart, told the court that in 1990 he had applied for a pharmacy licence for the Republic Street premises.
However, he was told by the authorities that his request could not be considered as there was a quota for the number of pharmacies in any one locality in terms of the Dispensary Licensing Regulations of 1984.
These regulations were supposed to be revoked and were substituted by the Pharmacy License Regulations of 2003. However, the latter regulations were not yet in force.
In 1996, after a request for reconsideration of the licence application, Mr Fava was told that there was an administrative freeze in place in respect of pharmacy licences, according to a decision taken a committee composed of the Health Ministry, the Chamber of Pharmacists and the GRTU.
This, argued Mr Fava, was abusive and illegal, for it was only the CGMO and the Superintendent who were authorised to issue pharmacy licences. The authorities had failed to perform their legal duty to consider his application on valid legal grounds.
Their failure to decide upon his application over such a long period of time was in violation of his rights and he requested the court to impose a time limit for the licence to be issued and to provide him with a constitutional remedy.
Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco found that the CGMO and the Superintendent were in blatant violation of the law and had refused to comply with a previous court order in favour of Chemimart.
The court ordered the authorities to issue the licence within two months. It also ruled, however, that it did not have the jurisdiction to provide a constitutional remedy in favour ofthe company.
Last week The Times reported that the owner of Collis Williams Pharmacy, also in Republic Street, had filed a judicial letter against the health authorities accusing them of failing to take action against Chemimart for operating nearby for more than a year without a valid licence.
Collis Williams claimed that Chemimart, which moved to Republic Street in 2010 when City Gate was being demolished, was only given a temporary licence to operate there. The temporary licence expired at the end of that year, it said.