PALGHAT CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) What presents in these writ petitions is the tale of two regimes for licencing under the provisions of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954, (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act', for short).

(2.) Under Sec. 24 of the Act, the Government of Kerala is empowered to frame and notify rules thereunder relating to purposes which are iterated therein. One of the purposes shown in Sec. 24 is to provide for licence and to fix the fees for such, for persons or concerns engaged in the manufacture of food for sale and for those engaged in sale of food without such manufacture. Authorised thus, the Government of Kerala notified Kerala Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules, 1957 (hereinafter referred to as '1957 Rules', for short) providing the procedure for various processes and requirements under the parent statute.

(3.) The 1957 Rules contain two Schedules: Schedule I prescribes fees for licence for manufacturers and sale of food and Schedule II provides for fees applicable to persons engaged in sale of food without such manufactures. The Schedules, which came into force in the year 1957, remained without any modification for the next more than 50 years. The rates shown therein for the licences were obviously very exiguous because the fees were in respect to the year 1957. There was no revision and the maximum licence fees under the original Rules was only about Rs. 20.00. Obviously, this had become redundant by efflux of time and on account of inflation, and the Government was, therefore, justified in thinking that the whole regime for licencing under the 1957 Rules required a quantum change.