With the Supreme Court favouring stringent punishment, even life imprisonment, for milk adulteration, the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Wednesday said an expert panel was working on changes to the food safety law.
An affidavit filed by the Ministry in the apex court said it would come up with amendments to the penal provisions in the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, in 45 days.
A Bench of Justices M.Y. Eqbal and Shiv Kirti Singh had lashed out at the inadequacies in the 2006 law, pointing out school students and common households were victims of the rampant practice of milk adulteration.
It had said that the six-month jail term in the Act was grossly inadequate, and it was “high time” the government acted in public interest.
The Supreme Court, in its December 2014 order, had repeatedly asked why the government was not making the “necessary amendments” to the penal provisions in the food safety law.
It said “punishment must be deterrent.”
