Ban on Khyber Milk to continue

Court stays earlier judgment of conviction

Budgam: A local court here Monday stayed the judgment of Chief Judicial Magistrate vis-à-vis Agro Farms Private Limited, however, the ban on the Dairy products of the company will continue.

Pertinently, the Chief Judicial Magistrate Budgam on April 4 this month had held M/S Khyber Agro Farms Pvt Ltd guilty for selling substandard and unsafe milk. The court had imposed a fine of Rs 9 laks on the company and besides it had ordered six months imprisonment to the In-Charge Operations nominated by the said company. 

The court had also declared Food Analyst Kashmir either incapable or dishonest and had ordered for his immediate removal. The court had also directed Commissioner Food and Safety to take all steps in ensuring that the Khyber company are closed or taken off from the market unless the Referral Laboratory Kolkatta declares that the product of the tainted company as safe to consume and products manufactured by it do not harm the nation as is proved by the medical report submitted by the SKIMS.

The District Court here on Monday stayed the operation of the judgment and the order of conviction and sentence was also suspended. The applicant/appellant was admitted to bail subject to his furnishing bail and personal bonds to the tune of Rs fifty thousand each for assuring his/their punctuality at the proceedings of the main appeal and his absence from the commission of any offensive punishable under the Act.

The Court however maintained that, “this order shall be not construed as a clog on the general powers of the Commissioner Food Safety of the State to prohibit in the interest of public health, the manufacture, storage, distribution or sale of any article of food either in the whole of the state or in any area or part thereof or to carryout survey of the industrial units engaged in the manufacture of processing of food in the state to find out compliance by such units of the standards notified by the Food Authority for various articles of the food, as the said power is statutory in origin and vests independently with the Commissioner of the Food Safety in terms of provisions of Section 30 of the Act.”

SMC pulls down Khyber signboards

Srinagar: Srinagar Municipal Corporation Monday removed all the hoardings of convicted Khyber Company about the banned toned milk and curdon roadsides and footpaths. The move comes after the government in compliance with court orders banned the supply and sale of company’s dairy products across Kashmir Valley.

Pertinently, Judicial Magistrate (Sub-Judge) Budgam, Imtiaz Ahmad Lone, had directed the Commissioner Food and Safety to close down the company or ensure that its products are taken off from the market till Referral Laboratory declares them safe from consumption.

According to the Commissioner Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Bashir Ahmed Khan, Khyber hoardings have been taken off in the interest of general public. “From business point of view, it is a loss for us, but we can’t generate revenue on the cost of human lives and besides we are bound to follow court directions,” Khan said.