Supreme Court pulls up Centre over food safety failures, seeks audit

New Delhi: In a significant move on public health and food safety regulation, the Supreme Court has asked the Centre, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India to explain why a nationwide performance audit of the implementation of food safety regime, including licensing and registration processes, must not be conducted.

A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta sought responses from the ministries of health and family welfare and consumer affairs, food and public distribution, among others, on a public interest litigation challenging the enforcement framework under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

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The matter assumes significance amid growing concerns over food adulteration, misleading labelling, unsafe packaging and weak enforcement of food safety standards across the country. The PIL raises broader questions about institutional accountability, public health protection and effectiveness of food safety regulatory framework.

The petition, filed by public health advocate Aniruddha Narayan Malpani, flagged regulatory and enforcement failures under the Act, including inadequate penal framework, shortage of food safety officers, weak lab infrastructure, delays in adjudication, non-recovery of penalties and widespread licensing irregularities.

The petitioner alleged the framework prescribes fixed and inadequate penalties that fail to create an effective deterrent against violations by large food operators.

Malpani urged the court to direct that penalties for food business operators be linked to turnover instead of capped fines, arguing that such a framework would ensure penalties are proportionate to the scale of operations and the gravity of violations. The petition, filed through counsel Ashwarya Sinha, also sought the creation of a dedicated digital platform for citizens to report food safety violations.

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The PIL cited CAG's 2017 report, which highlighted deficiencies in implementation of the Act, including shortages of food safety officers, non-functional laboratories, incomplete testing of food samples, issuance of licences without verification, adjudication delays and weak enforcement mechanisms.