While considering several expert reports, including the World Bank, on ill effects of carbonated soft drinks and growing adulteration in food products, the Supreme Court on Tuesday quashed the panel of scientific experts set up under the new food safety law after finding that several of its members had been directly taken from the industries, including Pepsi and Coke whose products are under the scanner.
Taking serious view of the government treating the matter casually and not even taking pains to check whether the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) actually had constituted an “independent” panel of scientific experts as per the requirement of the Food Safety and Standard Act passed by Parliament in 2006, the top court quashed the body and directed the Centre to reconstitute it.
“The panel constituted cannot be described as ‘independent’ and the FSSAI will re-notify the body. The panel shall be set up strictly as per section 13(1) of the Food Safety and Standard Act,” a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and A.K. Ganguly ordered.
“It is the panel, which can invite reports form industries (on adulteration), if the panel is not independent how it can go into this,” the bench said reminding the government that it had filed an affidavit in September 2009 on the issue of setting the panel but the FSSAI had actually done nothing.
“You have not done anything. It is important, why you are silent and the companies are selling their products. The affidavit was filed 18 months ago but you are sitting over the matter,” the court said while pulling up the FSSAI for including the members of the industries in the food adulteration monitoring body. The order came on a public interest litigation petition by NGO, Centre for PILs after its counsel Prashant Bhushan brought to the notice of the court how the FSSAI had diluted the provision of section 13(1) of the Food Safety Act, 2006.