HC seeks report on action against sellers of adulterated milk

The Madras High Court Tuesday directed the Food Safety Department in Tamil Nadu to submit a report on the action taken against milk sellers involved in adulteration of the essential commodity.

A division bench, comprising justices Vineet Kothari and Anita Sumanth, gave the directive to an official of the department on a PIL filed by a lawyer A P Suryaprakasam, seeking enhancement of punishment against those adulterating milk and milk products.

The bench opined that cases pertaining to food safety should be given priority in competent courts dealing with such trials because they directly affect the health and life of citizens under Article 21 of the Constitution.

"We assert that the courts concerned, as well as DROs (District Revenue Officers) dealing with civil proceedings against such sellers give urgent priority to such cases," it said.

The bench directed the registrar general of the high court to obtain reports from the courts of all districts, through the principle district judges, about the class of cases of food safety and the number of pending cases, giving year-wise break up, to ensure that trials receive due and urgent priority.

The court said it prima facie found that once it took up the PIL and started monitoring the working of the Food Safety Department, the department appeared to have undertaken a special drive against adulteration in December last year.

"The number of surveys conducted during 2017-18 up to November 2018, ranging from 47 samples analysed have gone up to 790 and the collected samples analysed by the department in December 2018."