‘We are in India’: Bombay HC rebukes FDA over Mantralaya’s kitchen score

The High Court, remarking that “medication should not be worse than the disease”, observed that the FDA, amid its extensive action against eateries in Maharashtra violating safety norms, has to be “impartial” while conducting inspections.

“The law has to be enforced impartially, and no litigant before the court should feel that private commercial establishments are meted out with different standards of inspection than statutory establishments,” the HC noted in its order.

After the court’s rebuke, the lawyer representing the FDA said the suspension notice issued to Poornima Restaurant will be converted to or treated as a show-cause or improvement notice before the suspension or cancellation of its FSSAI licences.

The restaurant, along with the Mantralaya canteen, will now be reinspected on Wednesday.

Acting Chief Justice Ravindra Ghuge said, “Either suspend the licence of the Mantralaya canteen or restore Poornima restaurant’s licence. We need to give everybody a chance. If one place is bad, then the Mantralaya canteen is also bad. We want parity; we want everyone to be treated equally. None, and especially VVIPs, are above the law. Even we virtually told you to inspect canteens in High Court premises. Be impartial, fair and uniform to all. We are in India; flies are bound to be there.”

Adopting a softer stance on the FDA’s crackdown on eateries across the state, Justice Ghuge said, “We know you are doing a good and laudable job and someone has stood up to do it. The public is also lauding it, but medication should not be worse than the disease. You are shooting first and then asking questions. Give them time to improve.”

A bench of Acting CJ Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad has been hearing pleas by Poornima Restaurant and others, challenging Maharashtra FDA’s action against them.

In the pre-lunch session on Friday, when the FDA informed the court that the Mantralaya canteen inspection showed 98 per cent compliance and that it had merely been issued an improvement notice, the court rapped the food agency and remarked: “Not a single insect? If we send some lawyers and if they find something, then we will take action against you. One fly in the petitioner’s hotel (Navi Mumbai) and you suspended the licence.”

The FDA, in the case of Poornima restaurant, had cited objectionable aspects, including black dots on bananas and vegetables, and found the restaurant to be 37 percent compliant.

“Its licence was promptly suspended, and several more reasons were shown with respect to hygiene. If this be so, then all the three canteens of Mantralaya should be top-notch; there should not be a single cockroach or fly,” the High Court noted, directing four lawyers to carry out inspections at the Vidhan Bhavan and Mantralaya canteens.

What lawyers found at Mantralaya canteen

After the inspection, the lawyers told the HC that cleaning operations were underway when they reached the Mantralaya canteen; however, the refrigeration facility was in shambles, among other discrepancies.

The court compared the FDA’s and the lawyers’ reports on the inspection at the Mantralaya and remarked, “The authority can be said to have taken a chance with the court by showing us such reports indicating a uniform 98% in all three canteens while the report by lawyers showed the truth. The officers are treating private establishments partially qua the establishments of state instrumentalities.”

The court also observed that the FDA carried out a five-hour inspection at Poornima restaurant, a nine-hour inspection at the Navi Mumbai hotel, but took relatively less time to inspect canteens at the state authorities. The High Court has also directed FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe to scrutinise the inspection reports of the Mantralaya and Vidhan Bhavan canteens.