SC pulls up Centre for not notifying Food Safety Act

New Delhi, Sep 5 (UNI) The Supreme Court today pulled the Central government for not notifying the Food Safety and Standards Act and making it mandatory for soft drink companies to display the contents of their products on bottles for the information of the consumers.

The court directed the government to enforce the order by the end of December this year.

A bench comprising Justices C K Thakker and Dalveer Bhandari issued the directions on a PIL filed by Centre for Public Litigation seeking ban on the manufacture and sale of Pepsi and Coca Cola as the pesticides and chemicals used in these beverages are highly damaging for human health.

The Food Safety and Standards Bill has been passed by both the houses of Parliament and has been given Presidential assent also, but the government is not implementing it. Prashant Bhushan appearing for the petitioner, alleged that the government was deliberately dragging its feet and was not implementing it under pressure from soft drinks majors.

Senior Counsel Harish Salve appearing for the soft drinks majors, however, alleged that a political battle was being launched against the cola companies by the vested interests.

The court also wanted to know from the government why it was not implementing the recommendations of the Joint Parliamentary Committee as well as the experts committe. The court further said that it would like to know from the government whether the pesticides and chemicals used in these drinks are injurious to health or not and why the government was not admitting it.

The court was also surprised to know that the entire exercise was being conducted by the government in the matter as secret and asked the government what was the secret about it and also reprimanded the government for deliberately wasting the time in holding meetings with the high powered committee.

The high-powered committee has been directed to submit its report to the government by the end of November.

UNI