Even as the Supreme Court rejected the plea filed by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) against the ruling given by Bombay High Court on Product Approval, the apex food regulator appeared to be sticking to its principle stand of rejecting applications instead of shifting to issuing NOCs (No Objection Certificates) at least as a temporary solution to end the crisis.
In this regard, FSSAI, in a recent development, has issued a notification saying that it will take all efforts to make appropriate regulations governing Section 22 of the FSS Act as it is no longer possible for the apex food regulator to continue the process of Product Approval in view of the order by the apex court whereby the Bombay High Court order gains finality and the Product Approval advisory ceases to remain operative.
FSSAI, however, remained silent as to what it would do in the absence of any such regulations.
Apparently, according to sources, the apex food regulator in case of newer applications is mulling to issue No Objection Certificates (NOCs) in absence of any regulation on product approval post- SC order.
And with lack of clarity over eligibility to obtain an NOC, the general feeling is that the food regulator will stick to its stand of rejecting Product Approval applications by citing various reasons at least till the winter session of Parliament when an alternative to the currently-discarded procedure of issuing of advisories by FSSAI could be found.
No comments:
Post a Comment