Namkeen meant for animal consumption being repacked and sold for human consumption: High Court directs Principal Secretary Food and Civil Supplies to file reply on a PIL:

Hearing a PIL alleging use of auctioned Namkeen meant for animal’s consumption, for the consumption of human beings, the Allahabad High Court has directed the UP’s Principal Secretary of food and civil supplies to file reply stating therein the steps taken to check this practice and has fixed September 20 as next date of hearing.

The basic issue involved in the present PIL was that rejected substandard Namkeen produced by the branded companies was auctioned in the name of cattle feed. “These rejected Namkeen are being purchased and after repacking the same, are being sold by mixing with some other Namkeen, in the open market for human consumption, which has serious consequences for the health of common citizen”, the court said. As the issue is of wider implication concerning the serious health issue, therefore, considering the seriousness of the issue, a division bench comprising Justice Vivek Kumar Birla and Justice Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal expanded the scope of the present PIL not only for any particular district but to the entire country, as the complaints and public health both existing beyond the boundaries of any particular place was involved. Therefore, in this backdrop, the court directed to implead the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government as a party in the PIL petition.

The court directed the high court office to implead the Union of India through Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India, New Delhi as respondent number two in the PIL petition.

The court directed the office to serve a copy of the documents including all the orders passed in this PIL to the additional solicitor general of India (ASGI) high court, Allahabad, so that he may apprise the court for the action taken by the Union Ministry over this issue.

During the course of hearing UP government’s counsel filed the compliance affidavits of Food and

Safety Officer, Kanpur, Food and Safety Officer, Bareilly and Commissioner, Food, Safety and Drug Administration, U.P. While taking this affidavit on record, the court further directed him to file the affidavit of Principal

Secretary, Food and Civil Supplies, UP Lucknow, who will apprise this court about the action taken by the state government against the persons involved in the matter including manufacturing units.

The court also directed the high court office to inform the additional solicitor general of India, high court, Allahabad to remain present at the time of hearing.

Besides, the court also accepted the intervention application of a high court lawyer – Ashutosh Kumar Tiwari, saying that he has provided valuable information through his affidavit filed in support of intervention application, which would be valuable for the disposal of this PIL. “Therefore, in the the interest of justice, this intervention application is allowed but only one of the interveners will represent before the court.

Further, it is expected that the interveners, who are practicing advocates of this court, shall support their arguments on the basis of data collected from the various agencies on the issue involved in this case”, the court added in its order dated September 5.