Allahabad HC Summons State Food Safety Dept Official After Advocate Brings 'Chinese' Garlic To Courtroom
On Thursday, the Allahabad High Court summoned an officer of the Food Safety and Drug Administration Department, Government of UP, after a practising advocate brought half a KG of 'Chinese' garlic as well as regular garlic to the courtroom.
A bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Om Prakash Shukla passed this order summoning a State Government official while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea filed by an Advocate (Moti Lal Yadav) raising the issue of the availability of Chinese garlic in Indian markets despite it being banned in 2014 over its harmful effects.
Hearing the matter today, the court also directed the Deputy Solicitor General of India, Surya Bhan Pandey, to seek instructions regarding the mechanism to prevent such banned items from entering the country.
The Court also sought instructions on whether any such exercise has been undertaken to determine the source of entry of such items and how the government proposes to prevent it.
With these directions, the matter has been posted for further hearing on Friday, September 27.
Advocate Yadav's PIL plea also seeks a direction to the CBI to probe the export and sale of banned Chinese garlic in the Indian market and to take appropriate legal action against the guilty officers and other offenders.
For context, the Indian Government prohibited the import of Chinese garlic in 2014 due to reports of fungus-infested garlic entering the country. The decision was taken after concerns were raised about the smuggled garlic possibly containing high levels of pesticides. Notably, China is the world's largest producer of garlic.
Yadav's PIL Plea claims that Chinese garlic is produced using pesticides and chemicals and is cancerous in nature. Thus, it fails to meet India's quality standards. Despite its import, transport, and sale being banned in India, the PIL plea submits that it is readily available in the market.
The PIL plea contends that the central government is failing to ensure that Chinese garlic is sold throughout the country.
“millions of people die every year in India by the cancer disease the opposite parties are fail to implement the order of the central government by which the Chinese garlic had been banned for export and sale India. The opposite parties have failed to implement the order of banned Chinese garlic in India since last 10 years as the Chinese garlic was banned for sale in India in the year 2014,” the PIL plea states.