A bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices R Banumathi and U U Lalit said that there was an urgent need to tackle the menace of growing sale of adulterated and synthetic milk+ in different parts of the country. It said that the milk adulteration+ could adversely affect the growth of future generations as it was the staple diet of all children and infants.
Asking Centre and states to consider to amend the present lenient law, the bench said that states of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha had already amended the law making adulteration punishable up to life imprisonment and there was nothing wrong in following their footsteps for making stringent law.
«It will be in order, if the Centre considers making suitable amendments in the penal provisions at par with the provisions contained in the state amendments to the IPC. It is also desirable that the Centre revisits the Food Safety and Standards Act to revise the punishment for adulteration making it more deterrent in cases where the adulterant can have an adverse impact on health,» it said.
The court directed the government to spread awareness about the hazardous impact of milk adulterations and to teach people easy methods for detection of common adulterants in food by conducting workshops. It directed the Centre and state governments to evolve a complaint mechanism for checking corruption and other unethical practices of food authorities and their officers.
Source: Times of India
Link: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Supreme-Court-favours-life-imprisonment-for-milk-adulteration/articleshow/53560913.cms?