Till now no decision has been taken by the government on approaching the SC on upholding the ban.
Twice in the last 40 days, outgoing Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) CEO Y S Malik recommended on file that the Central government should move a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court’s order on Maggi. The last time was less than a week before his removal from the food safety authority late on Tuesday night. Till now no decision has been taken by the government on approaching the SC on upholding the ban.
The decision to move him to the Niti Aayog came exactly nine months after he took charge of the FSSAI, a tenure during which the authority took on several corporates including the decision to ban nine varieties of the Maggi instant noodles. The ban was lifted by the high court on August 13. Nestle subsequently filed a petition for revision of the order for typographical errors. The revised order was issued on September 4 and uploaded on its website September 16.
Sources in the FSSAI said that first after the August 13 order, and then again after the September 4 order, Malik noted on the file that the government had adequate ground to move an SLP in the apex court seeking upholding of the ban.
When contacted, Malik refused to comment on the matter. He is due to join Niti Aayog on Thursday.
Sources claimed that FSSAI’s pro-activeness in the matter of Maggi did not go down well within the government, which apparently viewed the move as one that would spoil the investment climate in India.
The move to remove Malik on the eve of PM Narendra Modi’s US visit seemed to further indicate the NDA government’s discomfort with “targeting” the MNCs.
The order to ban Maggi was issued on September 5, minutes before the company held a press conference announcing voluntary withdrawal of the product. The Bombay High Court held that adequate opportunity had not been given to the company to present their case.
However, sources in the health ministry said that the fact that there were apprehensions about the Maggi case marring the investment climate was informally conveyed to officials in the food authority. Sources added that the government preferred that the HC order go unchallenged.
In the recent past, there were several other instances when FSSAI turned down applications for new product approvals, including that of a Singapore based company that wanted to introduce what it called a “chocolate compound” with a 61% carbohydrate and 33% fat content.
It had also rejected a slew of products already on sale by companies like Kellogg’s and Starbucks and also issued repeated instructions to state food safety officials to disallow sale of any products that lacked proper product approvals.
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