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 The Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has asked the pharmacy institutions applying for approval for the academic session 2026-27 to submit the Standard Inspection Format (SIF) within the extended timeline of November 10, as it would be the last opportunity for submission of the format.
The Council on October 31, said that it has decided to extend the last date for submission of SIF by the pharmacy institutions for approval for the academic session 2026-27 till November 10, in view of repeated request from all stakeholders.
It has earlier fixed the timeline for submission of SIF, Pharmacy Education Regulatory Charges (PERC), and the requisite statutory documents valid for the academic session for new institutions and existing institutions seeking approval for the introduction of a new course or raise in admissions, by October 31, 2025 in order to be considered for the academic session 2026-27.
Extending the last date for submission of SIF to November 10, the Council said that this is the last opportunity to submit the SIF for 2026-2027 academic session.
"The consequences of failure to apply will rest on the institutions and institutions will not considered for approval of 2026-2027 an academic session," said the Council.
"All the institutions are requested not to wait for the last date as crowding may slow down the server, hence application be submitted at the earliest within the stipulated date," it added.
In case of any technical query or glitch, the applicants should take a screenshot and forward to the PCI grievances portal. The Council said that any communication regarding technical glitches or query sent by mail or hard copy to Council will not be considered for future reference for any legal case or issue.
The Council initiated the admission process for the academic session 2026-27 by announcing that its portal will be open for existing pharmacy institutions to submit applications for extension of approval for the academic session 2026-27 from October 6 to 31, 2025.
The Portal will be open from October 6 throughout the year for new institutions applying for the first time and existing institutions applying for introduction of new courses and raise in admission, and services such as change in the name of institution, address, location, examining authority, hospital, closure of course or institution, among others.
However, the new institutions applying for the first time, as well as existing institutions seeking approval for the introduction of a new course or raise in admissions must submit the Standard Inspection Format (SIF), Pharmacy Education Regulatory Charges (PERC), and the requisite statutory documents valid for the academic session, by October 31, 2025 in order to be considered for the academic session 2026-27, it said earlier.
As reported earlier, a Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice of India B R Gavai, K Vinod Chandran, and Atul S Chandurkar, in an order on September 8, said that the PCI has requested for the modification of time schedule, pointing out that on various occasions, it has to approach the Supreme Court with a request to extend the previously fixed timelines in view of various difficulties and the modified timeline may address this issue. The PCI came out with the proposed time schedule after a meeting of the Central Council, effective from the academic session 2026-27.
The modified schedule, according to the latest circular, says that the institutions can register for issuance of PCI code for submission of application for the first time and submit the statutory documents throughout the year. If the documents of the institutions are found to be satisfactory by the Council, the institution will be allowed to submit the Standard Inspection Format (SIF) along with PERC as per the standards prescribed in scheme formulated by the Council.
If the Institution submits the SIF along with PERC before 1st November of the previous year, the application shall be processed for the current academic session, however, if the Institution submits the application on and after November 1, of the previous year, the application shall be considered for the next to next academic session.
Statutory documents inspection will not be done without submission of statutory documents. In special circumstances, the statutory documents shall be submitted within 15 days from submission of SIF. This should be on or before November 15.
The academic session will commence from August 1, and the last date up to which students can be admitted against vacancies has been fixed as August 15.
One month of extension period would be kept for the PCI, for utilisation in case of unforeseen circumstances. However, the Council will inform the stakeholders about this, well in advance, it added while announcing the revised timeline.
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