Question

The Pharmacy Act was passed in the year

• A. 1945
• B. 1948
• C. 1947
• D. 1951

Hint:

The Pharmacy Act of 1948 is a critical law that governs the practice and education of pharmacists in India.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Step 1: Understanding the Pharmacy Act.
The Pharmacy Act, which regulates the profession of pharmacy in India, was passed in the year 1948. It is an important legislation for maintaining standards in the practice of pharmacy and ensuring the qualifications and training of pharmacists.
Step 2: Analyzing the options.
(1) 1945: Incorrect, the Pharmacy Act was passed in 1948, not 1945.
(2) 1948: Correct — The Pharmacy Act was indeed passed in 1948.
(3) 1947: Incorrect, the Pharmacy Act was passed after India's independence.
(4) 1951: Incorrect, the Pharmacy Act was passed earlier, in 1948.
Step 3: Conclusion.
The Pharmacy Act was passed in the year (2) 1948.

Answer 2

The question asks for the year the Pharmacy Act was enacted in India. Instead of just recalling the year, let's place each option on the timeline of India's independence and post-independence legislative history to see which one fits.

1. 1945: This year falls before India's independence (1947), while the Pharmacy Act is a piece of independent India's professional-regulation legislation building on earlier drug laws, so a pre-independence date does not fit its history.
2. 1948: Shortly after independence, India moved to formalise the regulation of pharmacy as a profession, distinct from the manufacture and sale of drugs (already covered by the Drugs Act, 1940). The Pharmacy Act was passed in 1948 for exactly this purpose — establishing Pharmacy Councils and registration of pharmacists.
3. 1947: This is the year of independence itself; the country's legislative priorities that year were around the transfer of power and constitutional matters, and the Pharmacy Act followed slightly later, in 1948.
4. 1951: By this year, the Pharmacy Act was already several years old and operational; 1951 does not correspond to its enactment.

Cross-checking against the broader timeline of Indian pharmaceutical legislation (the Drugs Act of 1940 preceding it, and the Pharmacy Act following shortly after independence to regulate the profession itself) confirms the year.

Therefore, the correct answer is 1948.