MUMBAI: In a further relief for Nestle India, the Bombay HC on Friday clarified that five samples each from among the available nine Maggi variants can be sent for lead testing to three laboratories. So the company need not send five samples each from 750 stored cases of these variants as mentioned in an order last month, while lifting the nationwide ban on sale of the two-minute popular snack.
There are nine approved variants of Maggi of which six are available for the tests, lawyers said later. Hence the samples to be sent for testing now would be 30 each to three labs. The HC said the tests can be done within six weeks starting September 5.
A bench of Justices V M Kanade and B P Colabawalla made this modification to its order. The move came after senior counsel Iqbal Chagla, appearing for Nestle India, pointed out that the court's intention was for samples from each or available variants to be tested and not from each stored case of the not destroyed noodles. The latter would have result in a huge number of samples.
"There are 592 batches in the 750 cases, which would result in 2,960 samples, and for three labs it would mean 8,880 samples to be sent." The company had moved the court after spotting few "typographical errors" in dates and numbers mentioned in the order passed on August 13 when the bench had set aside the June 5, 2015, ban imposed on Maggi sale by Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) as being without following principles of natural justice.
The HC, after hearing Chagla and Mahmood Pracha (counsel for the FSSAI CEO), accepted the clarifications sought by Nestle to the typos and to the provisions of the food safety under which the tests were to be done. The HC had, while allowing Nestle's plea against the ban, however, "in public interest" directed that Maggi samples be sent to three certified laboratories for lead testing and, when found to be within limits, manufacturing could resume. The FSSAI had banned Maggi after 30 samples out of 70-odd were found to have high lead content.
Among the "typographical errors" were that the company had issued its press release about withdrawing products on June 5, not June 4 as recorded, and that nine variants have approvals, not eight, and that Maggi Masala Oats is the tenth variant which is pending approval.
The HC judgment, which had come as a victory for Nestle, however allowed the company to begin manufacturing of its popular instant snack only after three labs certify within six weeks that lead content in Maggi is within permissible limits. And the company may sell even the newly manufactured products of all other variants once they are tested and found to contain lead within permissible limits.
The HC in its order had clearly held that FSSAI had "no unfettered discretion to decide what standards have to be maintained by manufacturers of proprietary foods" and "could not impose a ban on the grounds that the lead found in the product of the petitioner was beyond what was represented in its application for product approval, though it was below the maximum permissible limits laid down under the regulations".
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