Monday, July 27, 2015

Maggi Ban: Alcohol Should Be Banned First, Says Bombay High Court

A Bombay High Court bench on Wednesday while hearing Nestle’s plea on Maggi ban observed that Alcohol should be banned first as it is injurious to health.

“The first thing that you should ban is alcohol. Nowadays, even schoolchildren have started consuming alcohol. It is injurious to health and is a food product. Cigarette is not because it does not fall in the category of food products,” Justices VM Kanade and BP Colabawalla said after FSSAI defended the maggi ban saying its injurious to health.

Nestle’s counsel, Igbal Chagla also agreed with the courts view and pointed out that no alcohol product has received approval from the food regulator.

Responding to the FSSAI counsel Anil Singh’s defence, the bench said that its time to put section 22 to the test. Section 22 states “Save as otherwise provided under this Act and regulations made thereunder, no person shall manufacture, distribute, sell or import any novel food, genetically modified articles of food, irradiated food, organic foods, foods for special dietary uses, functional foods, neutraceuticals, health supplements, proprietary foods and such other articles of food which the central government may notify in this behalf.”

The bench said that it will test whether the action taken by the government was arbitrary or justified. We can test executive action whether you like it or not,” the bench said to Anil Singh.

The FSSAI counsel also argued that Nesle India was putting a misleading impression by putting a “no MSG (Monosodium Glutamate)” tag in their product where the defence counsel argued that the laboratories where the tests were conducted had no accreditation and not notified. The FSSAI responded saying that the accreditation was required but notification was not.