Maggi Issue: High Court lifts ban, orders fresh tests within 6 weeks

The Bombay High Court on Thursday set aside the countrywide ban on nine variants of Nestle’s Maggi instant noodles, saying the national food regulator had acted in an “arbitrary” manner and not followed the “principles of natural justice” while banning the product.

The court, however, ordered Nestle India to conduct fresh safety tests on the product before relaunching it.
The Indian unit of Nestle had challenged a June 5 order of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and a similar order by the Maharashtra Food and Drug Authority (FDA) directing it to withdraw all variants of the noodles, citing the presence of excessive lead.

While setting aside the ban, Justices V M Kanade and B P Colabawalla clarified that Nestle India has to send five samples of the noodles in its possession for fresh tests before bringing it back to the market.

The court said it was still concerned about “public health and public interest”. “Even though it is two-minute noodles, it took us a lot of time,” the court said, minutes after setting aside the ban.

The tests will be carried out within six weeks at three centres accredited and recognised by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL): Vimta Labs, Hyderabad; Punjab Biotechnology Incubator, Mohali; and CEG Test House and Research Centre Pvt Ltd, Jaipur.

Reacting to the order, Nestle welcomed the decision and said it would undertake fresh tests of Maggi noodles.
Referring to the ban, the high court observed: “(The) principles of natural justice have not been followed before passing the impugned order and on that ground alone impugned orders are liable to be set aside, particularly when the petitioner (Nestle India), one day prior to the impugned order, had given a press release that it had recalled the product till the authorities were satisfied about the safety of the product.”

The court also said that the food labs engaged by the FSSAI, which found excessive lead in Maggi noodles, were not “authorised” under the FSS Act and Regulations. Therefore, the results could not be relied upon, it said.
Besides, the mandatory procedure of giving a notice under the provision of sampling and analysis was not followed, the court said.

During the arguments, FSSAI had alleged that Nestle India could not claim any relief as it had suppressed facts and attempted to destroy evidence. The High Court, however, negated this line.

The government has also filed a class action suit against Nestle India seeking, Rs 640 crore in damages for alleged unfair trade practices, false labelling and misleading advertisements.

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Source:Indianexpress

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