Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh): District and Sessions Court, Bhopal, has convicted directors of Top ‘n’ Town, Bhopal awarding them six months imprisonment each for adulteration under section 32 of Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, as per the district court, Bhopal judgement.
As per court order passed recently, food and drug administration (FDA) team had collected samples of sweet bread on May 19, 2010 as the date of packaging was not there. A case was registered against directors of Top ‘n’ Town Harish Ramani and Vijay Hariramani and manufacturers Arun Gwalani and Saheb Qureshi.
Sweet bread was supplied from Aditya Food Products and its nominees—Arun Gwalani and Saheb Qureshi—who are absconding. Bread packets were having best before May 23, 2010 and batch no—2076, the court order added.
“Accused Harish Ramani and Vijay Hariramani argued that they were not manufacturers of bread so they are not responsible for any adulteration. They also argued that the packet had mentioned that date of best use before May 23, 2010 and batch no—2076 so it is not violation of section 32 of Prevention of Food Adulteration Act as according to amendments to section 32(1) of Prevention of Food Adulteration Act all edible items which have 7 days shelf-life, there is no need to mention the packaging date”, the court order added.
“Accused lawyers also argued that as there was clearly mentioned that best before date was May 23, 2010 no customer was misled and confused. They also argued that sellers and manufacturers should be given warning before action but in this case, no warning was given and direct action was taken,” the court order added.
The court, in its observation, said, “Benefit of amendment in Prevention of Food Adulteration Act is given on only those edible items which have shelf life of less than 7 days but as far as sweet bread is concerned there is no clear citation that its shelf life is less than 7 days. Similarly, in Madhya Pradesh, there is no provision that first warning should be given before action taken so accused do not deserve any benefit.”
