The Madras High Court on Monday sought the response of the Centre to a writ petition challenging the validity of Food Safety and Standards (Organic Foods) Regulations of 2017 on the ground that farmers could not be brought under the purview of the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) of 2006.
A Division Bench of Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad ordered notices, returnable by September 10, to Union Ministries of Agriculture as well as Commerce and Industry on the petition filed by Selvam Ramaswamy of Erode district. He urged the court to declare the regulations unconstitutional.
His counsel D. Nagasaila argued that the 2017 Regulations were repugnant to Section 18(3) of the FSSA which categorically states that none of its provisions would apply to any farmer, fisherman, farming operations, crops, livestock, aquaculture, supplies used or produced in farming or products of crops produced by a farmer at farm level or a fisherman in his operations.
When farmers had been specifically excluded from the purview of the FSSA, how could the Centre bring in regulations on organic foods, she wondered. It was also pointed out to the court that the 2017 Regulations state that no person shall manufacture, pack, sell, offer for sale, market, distribute or import organic food in violation of its provisions.
