HC to decide maggi’s future on Monday

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court will deliver its verdict on Monday over food multinational Nestle India’s petition challenging the orders of FSSAI and Maharashtra’s FDA banning its products last month for containing toxic substances.

On Thursday, the division bench of Justice V.M. Kanade and Justice B.P. Colabawalla had asked both the sides to give their consent for a fresh test, however, on Friday both stuck with their own condition and ultimately the judges reserved their order on the issue.

Mehmood Pracha, counsel for FSSAI CEO Yudhvir Singh told the court that a retest was not permitted under the Food Safety Act, and said that if permitted, it could open up other similar cases for legal scrutiny.

Nestle’s lawyer Iqbal Chhagla said the company was agreeable to the suggestion but the tests should be conducted in the presence of a renowned scientist and the samples available with the company should be used.

Nestle has been at the centre of India’s worst food scare in a decade, after a regulator in Uttar Pradesh in May found excess lead in a sample of its popular Maggi noodles.

“For us, consumer interest is most important… this litigation may go on but we feel that the issue should be resolved amicably and therefore we suggested the parties to agree to a fresh independent test”, the bench observed.

Nestle said it would give fresh samples for a test at labs notified and accredited.

The company tested the samples after the announcement of FDA and reported that is safe to eat but the FDA Maharashtra has banned the product across the state.