Is liquor also a food: legal poser stumps SC

A bench of justices Deepak Verma and Ibrahim Kalifulla issued notices to the Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Association and others, seeking their stands on the legal poser and their responses to a plea by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSA) for transferring a batch of petitions from the Bombay and the Madhya Pradesh high courts to the apex court.

Appearing for the statutory authority, counsel Sandeep Prabhakar submitted that since the issue involved substantial questions of law and constitutional validity of Section 3(1) (j) of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, it needs to be adjudicated by the apex court.

"So liquor is also a food!," remarked an amused apex court bench, while issuing notices on FSSA's plea.

The FSSA counsel said that in petitions before the two high courts, the alcoholic manufacturers and the organisations representing them have questioned constitutional validity of the section 3(1)(j) of the Act which defines "food" and "alcoholic drink" has been included in its definition.

The manufacturers and dealers have contended that the Act cannot be invoked in the case of alcoholic drinks as they are not food.

"Our aim is to invoke the Act so as to standardise the content as they relate to maintenance of public health and safety," Prabhakar submitted to the bench. (More)