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| Food adulteration: SC suspends December 23 HC order | | | Et Report
Srinagar, Jan 7 : Supreme Court today "suspended" an order by J&K High Court, asking three food companies to deposit Rs. 10 crore each with a SK Institute of Medical Sciences laboratory report stating that some of their products were "substandard and unsafe.""…
We suspend the operation of the impugned order for a period of four weeks from today," a division bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam said after hearing a SLP filed by Khyber Agro Farms Pvt.Ltd against the December 23 order by High Court.The bench also comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Shiva Kirti Singh stayed the order after senior advocate Z A Shah brought to its noticethat the petitioner was not a party to the impugned proceedings before the High Court. The apex court also permitted the petitioner to file an application for impleading themselves as a party in the proceedings on the re-opening date on January 27.
"On such petition being filed, we request the High Court to go into the plea of the petitioner and pass appropriate order after affording opportunity to all the parties," the bench said, "We have not expressed any opinion on the merits of the claim of the petitioner."
On December 23, the division bench comprising Justices M. H Attar and Tashi Rabstan had passed the order after hearing a petition filed by advocate Sheikh Mohammad Ayoub. The order came following a report by Central Food Laboratory Kolkata which found samples of some of the products manufactured by the companies as "misbranded, substandard and unsafe."
The court had said that the treatment has to be meted out to the people who have suffered or who may suffer from various diseases because of the consumption of such products.
"In our considered view, at this stage we deem it appropriate to direct the owners or managing directors of the above said companies or corporations to deposit the amount of Rs. 10 crores each with the Director SKIMS within two weeks," the division bench said. The laboratory report revealed that a batch of toned Khyber milk manufactured in July was found to be unsafe, misbranded and substandard.
The report also suggested that detergents were also found in the sample of the milk.
The laboratory also declared unsafe the turmeric powder manufactured by Delhi-based AVON Agro Industries Private Limited because one of its samples showed the presence of Tartrazine (a colouring matter which can be cause of subjecting a consumer to fatal diseases).
Similarly, the laboratory found Carmoisine and Tartrazine in samples of a 'saunf' (fennel seeds) powder processed and sold by south Kashmir based Kanwal Agro food industries and it was also declared to be "unsafe". |
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