Rajasthan High Court takes suo motu cognizance of food adulteration

The Rajasthan High Court on Monday took suo motu cognizance of the increasing food adulteration and issued a slew of directions to the State and Central governments..Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand flagged the loopholes in the Food Safety and Standard Act, 2006, and highlighted the lack of food testing labs to scrutinise food manufacturing and processing industries.The food authority is understaffed and underfunded and is not able to keep pace with the increasing number of food industries, the Court observed.“Due to lack of proper technology, at the ground level, the food authorities are not competent to monitor the situation. There are doubts about the standard procedures followed by the various laboratories in different States of the Country while scrutinizing the products,” it said..In this backdrop, the Court suo motu initiated a public interest litigation on the issue “to find out the solutions for good health of all the living beings”.“Food adulteration is an increasingly recognized global public health problem. Having adulterated food is highly toxic and the same leads to several health issues including certain nutrition deficiency diseases, kidney disorder and failure of an individual’s organs including heart, kidney, liver, etc. Adulteration or contamination of natural food product is one of the major challenges in today’s society,” the Court underscored..The Court emphasized that people are protected under Article 21 of the Constitution of India against the hazardous and injurious food articles and under Article 47 of the Constitution of India, it is the welfare State’s duty to ensure such rights of the citizens are protected.However, it said the law does not provide solution to all the problems as unorganised sectors are not covered by it.“The Act of 2006 does not provide solutions to all the problems, as various loopholes exist in the same. The unorganized sectors are ignored in the Act of 2006. It contains petty manufacturers, hookers, retailers which contribute a lot to the unorganized sector. It mainly emphasis the processing industry. The primary sector is included in the Act of 2006, but the agricultural sector, producing primary food, is ignored,” the Court said. .It also opined that the Central government was well aware of the situation and that is why the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had framed Food Safety and Standard (Amendment) Bill, 2020. However, the Court said the same has been lying in cold storage for reasons best known to the legislature.“The laws are descriptive and the implementation of the legislation is still at its beginning stage and the problem lie in its poor implementation. The Center and the State Governments are expected to take this issue of food adulteration in a serious way to save the lives of all humans and living beings, who are suffering from the serious and life threatening diseases, caused by adulterated unsafe food,” it added..Considering the seriousness of the situation, the Court issued following interim directions to the State and Centre:.(a) Central and the State Government should take appropriate steps to implement the Act of 2006 in a more effective way;(b)The State Food Safety Authority (SFSA) should identify high risk areas and time so as to ascertain as to where and when there are high chances of adulteration in food articles and accordingly collect the samples from those areas on regular basis;(c) The SFSA should ensure that there are test Labs which are having well-equipped testing infrastructures and technical persons to handle them;(d) Measures should be taken by the SFSA and District Authorities for sampling of products on regular basis;(e) Snapshot summery tests should be conducted periodically at the State, District, Urban and Rural Levels;(f) State Level Committee, headed by the Chief Secretary and the Additional & Principal Secretary of Health Welfare and Food Department along with District Level Committee, headed by the concerned District Collector should be constituted to take a review of the work done in curbing the adulteration by the authorities;(g) The Central government as well as the State government and the concerned departments should set up a website that will be responsible for creating awareness about complaint mechanism functioning and the responsibilities of the food safety authorities. The website will have the contact details of Food Safety Officers and a toll-free number as well;(h) The Central government as well the State government and their Departments should put a check on compliance and unethical practices (if any) used by the Food Authorities and their Officers by evolving the complaint mechanism;(i) Appropriate steps should be taken by the government for effective implementation of its scheme “Sudh ke Liye Yudh” in its letter and spirit.(j) The State Government/Food Authority/Commission of Food should circulate message through SMS, FM Radio, Television, Newspapers, Print, Electronics and Social Media to the general public about the ill-effect on the health due to adulteration and educate the children through workshops/ seminars in schools etc. in determining adulterated components in food..The Court further directed the authorities to submit compliance reports regarding sampling being done to check the food adulteration at the end of every month along with the steps being taken by them.The matter will be heard next on July 30..The Court also asked the Senior Advocates at Jaipur and Jodhpur to assist the bench in the matter. It particularly mentioned the names of Senior Advocates NK Maloo, Madhav Mitra, Sanjay Jhanwar, Gayatari Rathore, MS Singhvi, Ravi Bhansali, Sachin Acharya and Dr. Vikas Balia.The Court further asked the Chairman/Vice Chairman of the Bar Council and the Presidents of the Bar Associations and Advocates’ Association at Jaipur and Jodhpur to assist the Court "for taking appropriate steps and issuing suitable directions for this pious public cause.""Video conference link be sent to the Advocates of Jodhpur whenever this matter is listed for hearing. Members of the Bar are also welcome to give their valuable suggestions by submitting written submissions," the order said..[Read Order]