The Bombay High Court refused on Friday to stay the notification banning paan masala, saying the state government had taken the decision in public interest.
The interim order was passed in response to a petition by Dhariwal Industries Limited challenging the seizure of its paan masala packets by the state Food and Drugs Administration.
Dhariwal Industries said the state government had imposed a “blanket ban” on gutkha and paan masala.
It argued that the two products were different and paan masala was not harmful.
Advocate General Darius Khambata countered that 98 per cent of samples of paan masala were found to have certain percentage of zinc, magnesium carbonate and other harmful substances.
A group of doctors from Tata Memorial Hospital, who intervened in the case in support of the ban, said the various processes the product was put through to add taste and flavour made it hazardous to health.
A group of companies manufacturing gutkha has also challenged the government man. Their petitions are to be heard on September 12.
The companies have questioned if gutkha can be classified as “food” and said it cannot be governed by Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, under which it has been banned.
The companies claim before the notification, gutkha was governed by Control of Tobacco Products Act, 2003.
Sanjay Kadam, the lawyer who represented the doctors from Tata Memorial Hospital, said, “We welcome the judgment. Our stand was that loss of revenue (to gutkha companies) can never be a larger issue than loss of human life and health.”
FDA awaits nod to destroy seizure
With the Bombay High Court upholding the ban on manufacturing and sale of paan masala in an interim order, the state Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) is now awaiting nod to destroy seized packets.
The state FDA has confiscated gutkha and paan masala worth Rs 6.85 crore since the ban notification was issued in July. Of this, seizure worth Rs 92 lakh was made in Mumbai.
“Most of the gutkha, worth Rs 3 crore, was seized from Thane. We are now waiting for the final hearing to destroy the seizure,” said Kamlesh Sankhe, Joint Commissioner (food), FDA.
Paan masala contains areca nut, a WHO-categorised carcinogen. “This is the first time that paan masala has been included in the perview of tobacco ban.
“There is enough evidence to prove its ill- effects,” said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi of Tata Memorial Hospital. Anti-tobacco activists welcomed the move.
“It is a commendable risk the government has taken to ban paan masala.
“The challenge now is its implementation. Children, who suffer the most from the sale and consumption of paan masala, will benefit from this move,” said Vincent Nazareth of NGO Crusade against Tobacco.
No court relief for pan masala makers
MUMBAI: The Bombay HC on Friday granted no relief to a petition filed by the makers of a pan masala, Pan Vilas, and after clubbing the case originally filed in Nagpur with the clutch of challenges raised by gutka majors in Mumbai, said it would finally hear the matter on September 12.
Their counsel, Ravi Kadam, argued that the product which was merely pan masala, and not flavoured tobacco like gutka, cannot be banned because it does not contain tobacco, nicotine or magnesium carbonate. ACT India, the Tata hospital-based NGO, intervened in this petition too
and opposed their demand.Advocate general Darius Khambata appearing for the state senior counsel Rajni Iyer for the NGO argued that pan masala was also very
harmful for health and needed to be prohibited. The state ban was on both.
The HC bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Nitin Jamdar had earlier been assured by the state that it would not destroy any seized packets of gutka. The court has not stayed the ban introduced by the state government in July 2012
on gutka and pan masala. In an detailed
affidavit, the state earlier said the ban under a 2006 law which is a central law and its rules notified in 2011 was in "larger interest of public health". It said the ban was justifed since flavoured tobacco was considered "food" even by the Supreme Court and under the Food Safety and Standards Act which governed adulteration of food to protect public health.
The interim order was passed in response to a petition by Dhariwal Industries Limited challenging the seizure of its paan masala packets by the state Food and Drugs Administration.
Dhariwal Industries said the state government had imposed a “blanket ban” on gutkha and paan masala.
It argued that the two products were different and paan masala was not harmful.
Advocate General Darius Khambata countered that 98 per cent of samples of paan masala were found to have certain percentage of zinc, magnesium carbonate and other harmful substances.
A group of doctors from Tata Memorial Hospital, who intervened in the case in support of the ban, said the various processes the product was put through to add taste and flavour made it hazardous to health.
A group of companies manufacturing gutkha has also challenged the government man. Their petitions are to be heard on September 12.
The companies have questioned if gutkha can be classified as “food” and said it cannot be governed by Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, under which it has been banned.
The companies claim before the notification, gutkha was governed by Control of Tobacco Products Act, 2003.
Sanjay Kadam, the lawyer who represented the doctors from Tata Memorial Hospital, said, “We welcome the judgment. Our stand was that loss of revenue (to gutkha companies) can never be a larger issue than loss of human life and health.”
FDA awaits nod to destroy seizure
With the Bombay High Court upholding the ban on manufacturing and sale of paan masala in an interim order, the state Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) is now awaiting nod to destroy seized packets.
The state FDA has confiscated gutkha and paan masala worth Rs 6.85 crore since the ban notification was issued in July. Of this, seizure worth Rs 92 lakh was made in Mumbai.
“Most of the gutkha, worth Rs 3 crore, was seized from Thane. We are now waiting for the final hearing to destroy the seizure,” said Kamlesh Sankhe, Joint Commissioner (food), FDA.
Paan masala contains areca nut, a WHO-categorised carcinogen. “This is the first time that paan masala has been included in the perview of tobacco ban.
“There is enough evidence to prove its ill- effects,” said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi of Tata Memorial Hospital. Anti-tobacco activists welcomed the move.
“It is a commendable risk the government has taken to ban paan masala.
“The challenge now is its implementation. Children, who suffer the most from the sale and consumption of paan masala, will benefit from this move,” said Vincent Nazareth of NGO Crusade against Tobacco.
No court relief for pan masala makers
MUMBAI: The Bombay HC on Friday granted no relief to a petition filed by the makers of a pan masala, Pan Vilas, and after clubbing the case originally filed in Nagpur with the clutch of challenges raised by gutka majors in Mumbai, said it would finally hear the matter on September 12.
Their counsel, Ravi Kadam, argued that the product which was merely pan masala, and not flavoured tobacco like gutka, cannot be banned because it does not contain tobacco, nicotine or magnesium carbonate. ACT India, the Tata hospital-based NGO, intervened in this petition too
and opposed their demand.Advocate general Darius Khambata appearing for the state senior counsel Rajni Iyer for the NGO argued that pan masala was also very
harmful for health and needed to be prohibited. The state ban was on both.
The HC bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Nitin Jamdar had earlier been assured by the state that it would not destroy any seized packets of gutka. The court has not stayed the ban introduced by the state government in July 2012
on gutka and pan masala. In an detailed
affidavit, the state earlier said the ban under a 2006 law which is a central law and its rules notified in 2011 was in "larger interest of public health". It said the ban was justifed since flavoured tobacco was considered "food" even by the Supreme Court and under the Food Safety and Standards Act which governed adulteration of food to protect public health.
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