HC stays order in favour of tobacco manufacturer

Firm had challenged the invoking of the Food Safety Act

A Division Bench of the Madras High Court has stayed an order passed by a single judge of the court in favour of a chewing tobacco manufacturing company by setting aside action initiated against it under the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) of 2006 and the regulations framed under the Act in 2011 prohibiting and restricting the sale of certain products.

Justices Huluvadi G. Ramesh and K. Kalyanasundaram granted the stay after Additional Government Pleader E. Manoharan contended that the single judge’s order, passed on June 9 last year, would hamper efforts being made by the Food Safety and Drugs Control (FS&DC) department to crack down on the sale of gutkha, pan masala and other banned products.

In an affidavit filed along with her writ appeal, G. Varalakshmi, the Designated Officer of the FS&DC department in Villupuram district, said the State government had banned the sale of chewing tobacco, pan masala and gutkha for the first time in November 2001 by invoking Section 7 of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act of 1954.

Another notification was issued on May 23, 2013, imposing a similar ban for a period of one year. But this time, it was issued by invoking the provisions of the FSSA, 2006. The ban was extended periodically.

In October 2016, the appellant seized samples of tobacco products manufactured by Jayavilas Tobacco Traders in Chinna Salem and decided to prosecute it for offences under the FSSA. However, the company filed a writ petition on the ground that tobacco was not a food product, and therefore, the FSSA could not be invoked.

A single judge of the court accepted the contention.