MUMBAI JIVDAYA MANDALI Vs. STANDARD REVIEW CALL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a wholly vague petition filed in the nature of Public Interest Litigation seeking the following reliefs :-

(2.) At the outset, we may note that all prayers made in the Writ Petition are vague and in absence of specific prayer, pointing out any instance of violation of the provisions of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011, it is not possible for us to issue any general mandamus asking the authorities to provide the documents and information and other details as to how many prosecutions are being initiated in case of misbranding of food products, which are not as per the vegetarian and non-vegetarian provisions of said Regulations. The prayers made in the Writ Petition to issue a general mandamus commanding the respondent authorities to act urgently and periodically by obtaining samples of food items from open market and making inspection periodically at regular intervals and to carry out test thereon as per provisions of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, is too vague to entertain. In the first prayer made in the Writ Petition as noted herein above, a general mandamus is sought for to direct the respondents to implement the provisions of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011 made there under to ascertain whether any green labelled food item contains any non-vegetarian ingredient.

(3.) During the course of arguments, when this flaw in the prayers has been pointed out to the learned counsel for the petitioner, he has invited the attention of the Court to the order dtd. 31/8/2021 passed by this Court, wherein this Court has taken a note of Regulation 4 of Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011 and further, the definitions in Regulation 1/2/11 of "Vegetarian Food", "ingredient" defined under Sec. 3(y) and "food additive" defined under Sec. 3(k) of the Act, 2006. Noticing the said provisions, this Court has directed requiring the detailed affidavits from the State Government as well as the Central Government. This Court has also noted that the affidavit already filed by the Central Government by Assistant Director of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Gujarat, FDA, was already on record. However, the additional affidavit was sought for. In a previous order dtd. 10/8/2021, the learned Government Counsel was directed to explain the availability of the adequate infrastructure facilities with all the Government Laboratories for maintaining Food Standards in the State of Gujarat, particularly with reference to Green Label Products (Vegetarian). It seems that on the letter dtd. 29/9/2015 issued by the Senior Scientific Officer (Food), Foods and Drugs Laboratory, Vadodara, it was noted by this Court that they do not have such facility. It was further noted that the said laboratory did not have such adequate facility to issue certain lab reports for various products, which were annexed along with the reply filed by the State Government. It was thus opined that the samples were not properly tested in the laboratory and the reports of the laboratory produced with the reply of the State Government did not satisfy the scope of the Writ Petition.