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 The Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has warned of strict legal and disciplinary action against any attempt to create, maintain or use duplicate or fictitious profiles or fake faculty credentials of teaching pharmacists in the DIGI-Pharmed portal.
The Council, in a latest circular, asked all teaching pharmacists having a BH-P number, the unique registration number registered under the DIGI-Pharmed portal, to ensure that their profiles are complete, accurate and supported by valid and authentic documents across all applicable sections of the portal.
The move is latest to the Council's efforts to bring all pharmacists on to the digital platform to improve standards and regulation of the pharmacy education and profession. It has reiterated on multiple occasions that the institutions should implement Aadhar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) with data of all the faculty members, and keep the documents in their profiles update in order to mark attendance of pharmacy teachers through the system.
However, it added, "Based on the scrutiny of the council, it has again come into the notice that there are numerous profiles which are intentionally being created fake with similar educational documents, SPC certificates, similar name etc.".
"These actions are fraudulent in nature and council may initiate the further legal action for undergoing such action despite of multiple directions via various circulars," stated the Central Council.
In a final warning, the Council asked all BH-P profiles having such irregularities and/or pending verification shall complete the required authentication and profile-completion process within 7 (seven) days from the date of issuance of the notice.
As the Health Professional Registry (HPR) registration or verification process is now live, all existing pharmacists having a BH-P profile and are required to log in to the concerned portal and complete the applicable HPR verification process as well.
It added that the Council will be undertaking a comprehensive scrutiny of the profiles to ensure that the mandatory requirements including AEBAS verification for faculty members, completion of e-KYC or authentication process, genuineness of all education certi9ficates uploaded on the DIGI-Pharmed portal, authenticity of details of registration certificates and other documents, availability and genuineness of all other supporting documents in the profile, among others.
No duplicity or usage of documents from other individuals would be allowed. No duplicate, fictitious, misleading or otherwise fraudulent profile shall be created or used for representing faculty in any pharmacy institution.
The Council warns that if the profiles are identified or noticed as pending mandatory verification, they may be placed under debarred or non-compliant category and shall not be treated as valid faculty profiles for the concerned institution until the prescribed verification and compliance requirements are duly completed.
If the status remains the same, the Council will further proceed with the de-activation of the profile registered on DIGI-Pharmed portal.
Subsequently, if any pharmacist is found to be non-compliant, including cases where the profile does not have the required AEBAS verification (where applicable), e-KYC or HPR verification, or where the educational qualifications, State Pharmacy Council registration or other supporting documents are found to be incomplete, invalid, fabricated, duplicated or otherwise unauthentic, the Council may take appropriate action against the concerned individual and institution.
"The Council further reiterates that any attempt to create, maintain or use duplicate/fictitious profiles or fake faculty credentials shall be viewed seriously and may result in strict legal and disciplinary action under the applicable provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, Information Technology Act, 2000, and other applicable laws/rules/regulations, as deemed appropriate for the council," it added.
The PCI has the middle of last month informed that the integration of Pharmacist Registration and Tracking System (PRTS) or DIGI-Pharmed portal with the Health Professional Registry (HPR) has been made functional now and the existing registered pharmacists need to complete and validate their HPR profile in a stipulated time frame. The deadline was advised only for the existing registered pharmacist, it clarified later.
In May, this year, the Council has warned the institutions that continued non-compliance and failure to fulfil the prescribed Aadhar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) requirements may result in rejection of the application or putting the institution under the “Not to Make Admissions” category for the Academic Session 2026–27.
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