The Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association on Monday said that it would move the High Court to realise the estimated Rs.18 lakh collected “arbitrarily” by the office of the Food Safety Commissioner from hoteliers in the State last year.
In a statement here, association general secretary Moideen Kutty Haji claimed that the High Court had upheld his organisation’s contention that food safety officers had no right to impose fines.
The court had deemed illegal the practice of slapping “improvement notices” and fines on hoteliers at the same time, he said.
He said that the court upheld the association’s argument that as per the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, only the “adjudication officer” could impose fines.
The law bestowed no such authority on food safety inspectors.
Mr. Moideen said the ‘capricious action’ by food safety inspectors had caused huge losses to the hospitality industry and bankrupted hoteliers.
Many establishments burdened by huge fines were forced to shut shop. He said the State was morally bound to pay back the fines it had collected in such a fashion.
