Nestle moves Bom HC against food authorities, hearing tomorrow

Multinational Giant Nestle India Ltd today challenged in the Mumbai High Court the orders of food authorities banning nine variants of its instant product "Maggi" from the Indian market for being "hazardous" to public health and the plea will be heard tomorrow.
The revision application (appeal against the impugned orders passed by authorities in Delhi and Maharashtra) was mentioned orally by the company's counsel before a division bench of Justice V M Kanade and B P Colabawalla which posted it for hearing tomorrow.
The lawyer urged the court to hear the matter urgently as the company had suffered losses due to the food regulator's orders which had asked Nestle India Ltd to withdraw and recall the products from the market with immediate effect after finding that they were "hazardous to public health due to presence of lead more than the permissible limits".

Nestle urged the HC to quash the June 5 order of Delhi-based Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and its Chief Executive Officer asking the company to withdraw and recall all its nine variants of Maggi from the market as they were unsafe and hazardous for human consumption.
The impugned orders also asked the company to stop production, processing, import, distribution and sale of their products with immediate effect, said Nestle.
Nestle also prayed for setting aside the impugned order of Commissioner of Food Safety, Government of Maharashtra, banning the production and sale of 'Maggi' products of the company in the State.

The company said the impugned orders do not comply with the mandatory provisions of section 34 of Food Safety and Standards Authority Act which deals with Emergency prohibition notices and orders. It said the orders were passed without any authority and without following due process of law.
The company also said the impugned orders were illegal, arbitrary and violative of the principles of Natural Justice as well as the Constitution of India.