AROMATRIX FLORA PVT LTD Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition has been preferred seeking the following reliefs:

(2.) The petitioner had approached this Court essentially aggrieved by the alleged delay caused by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India [FSSAI] in the grant of a No Objection Certificate [NOC] for clearance of imported goods resulting in prohibitive demurrage charges coming to be levied. The petitioner had contended that in terms of the provisions made in Sec. 47(5) of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 [the Act], FSSAI was obliged to duly inspect the imported food articles and accord clearance within a period of 5 days of taking the requisite samples. It was contended that FSSAI had on innumerable occasions caused delay in the grant of the NOC resulting in the petitioner being foisted with huge liabilities towards demurrage charges.

(3.) It must, at the outset, be noted that while the writ petition as originally framed had sought appropriate directions for the levy of demurrage charges being imposed on an importer only after the grant of an NOC from FSSAI and in essence a waiver from that levy till such time as clearance is granted, learned counsel for the petitioner has in the course of her submissions, stated that the reliefs as claimed stand restricted to appropriate directions being framed for FSSAI expediting the process of inspection of imported articles and for permission being accorded to enable an importer to move the goods from a custodian warehouse to a public warehouse.