HC moved to stop sale of substandard liquor in TN

Chennai: Around 10 days after TOI reported that the Tamil Nadu government-owned wine shops are selling substandard liquor and that alcoholic beverages sold in these outlets had not been subjected to random checks either by the Tasmac administration or food safety department for the past 14 years, the issue has been taken to the Madras high court for action against officials responsible.

Moving a public interest litigation (PIL) in the high court, V Sriraman and his friend advocate Vijay have sought the court to direct the authorities concerned to prevent sale of substandard liquor in Tasmac outlets and take action against officials responsible for such sales.

The petitioners also wanted the court to pass an interim direction to stop sale of liquor is such outlets and direct food safety officials to take random samples and produce laboratory reports in the court.

On March 23, the petitioner and his friends suffered vomiting and diarrhoea after they consumed two brands of white rum bought from a Tasmac outlet in Koyambedu.

Subsequently, he lodged a complaint with the food safety department and samples of Ancient Cask Premium XXX Rum were sent to laboratory for analysis. On June 20, the petitioner received a letter from the department with the analysis report which said that the sample was found to be substandard.

"To counter check, we sent the sample of Ancient Cask Premium XXX Rum and Bacardi Limon Rum to Chennai Mettex lab, in Guindy, an NABL-accredited laboratory. The report revealed that the sample of Ancient Cask contained 815 counts of acid which should not exceed 200 as per IS 3811-2005 (requirement for white rum). Similarly, report of Bacardi rum revealed that residue on evaporation % (m/v) resulted in 6.98% which should not exceed 1.0 & total acids resulted to 550 which shouldn't exceed 200," the petitioner said.

The petitioner further pointed out the news report in TOI published under the title, 'Gulpit! No quality check at Tasmac shops for 14 years' and said, "In the news report a food safety official had said that the department cannot conduct random checks unlike other products as there were legal issues over whether alcoholic beverages fall under the category of food."

But to the contrary, the Food Safety and Standards Authority is the licencing body for distilleries who manufacture such products, he added.

The PIL, which has been filed in the high court registry, is likely to be taken up for hearing on Friday.