A bench of Justices J S Khehar and C Nagappan said the advisory of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) cannot be sustained as it is not backed by statute.
Food safety regulator FSSAI on Wednesday got a jolt from the Supreme Court, which dismissed its plea against a Bombay High Court order staying its 2013 advisory requiring manufacturers to take approvals for the products already in the market.
A bench of Justices J S Khehar and C Nagappan said the advisory of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) cannot be sustained as it is not backed by statute.
"No ground for interference is made out, in exercise of our jurisdiction under Article 136 of the Constitution of India. The special leave petitions are accordingly dismissed," the bench said while upholding the Bombay HC order on the issue.
According to the May 2013 advisory, food products covering a broad spectrum including "novel foods, functional foods, food supplements, irradiated foods, genetically modified foods, foods for special dietary uses or extracts or concentrates of botanicals, herbs or of animal sources" should apply for product approval.
The High Court had earlier ruled that the advisory does not have any statutory backing, but the FSSAI had approached the apex court against the verdict.
Industry body Assocham hailed the order and said in a release that "this decision will uphold the industry's interests especially in the small and medium scale sector which find the process of product approval and enforcement as a cause of major concern, bordering on fear, for them.
"This advisory, if enacted, would have put additional burden on the thin resources of SME sector as well as wasted the valuable time in obtaining unnecessary approvals," it had said.
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