The Bombay High Court did not give any interim relief to food and chocolate major Nestle against a plea to stay the ban on Maggi noodles. The court has scheduled the next hearing for June 30.
A Division Bench of Justices VM Kanade and BP Colabawalla, however, directed the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to file affidavits within two weeks over concerns raised by Nestle.
Terming the ban “drastic and stringent”, the Indian arm of the Swiss multinational questioned the jurisdiction of the two food authorities to ban a product. Senior Counsel Iqbal Chagla, representing Nestle, argued that the FSSAI imposed a ban on Maggi without giving any prior notice and that the samples tested in a Kolkata laboratory had crossed the expiry date.
The samples were sent for testing in January 2014 and the test was done in March 2015, he said, adding that during this time the noodles were kept open, which might have resulted in the high content of lead.
Senior advocate Mehmood Pracha, appearing on behalf of FSSAI, argued that the food authority was well within its rights to issue the order.
He said though Nestle claims to be a “socially responsible” company, it spends a mere ₹1.19 crore on food safety measures but ₹445 crore on sales and promotion and ₹195 crore on advertising annually.