Court slams State for ‘mere’ fine on milk adulterators

A division bench comprising Justice Vineet Kothari and Justice Anita Sumanth during the earlier hearing had summoned the Director of Health, Tamil Nadu, to appear before it with a complete and comprehensive report about the manufacture and sale of adulterated milk in the state.

Though the Director appeared in person and submitted a report prepared by the Commissioner of Food Safety, the bench expressed its displeasure over the report that besides the ‘abysmally low’ number of samples being checked, the action thereafter against the offenders was merely confined to a fine. The bench then directed the Government to arrest and prosecute all the offenders.

Also, directing the authorities to continue the search, seizure and prosecution of offenders, the bench said if necessary, it will direct the lower courts to deal with such cases expeditiously. The bench then granted a month’s time to intensify the checks and prosecute the offenders, and said the Director should file a fresh report and scheduled the case for further hearing to January 21.

The report claimed that in the inspection of milk in 32 districts since 2011, a total of 1273 milk samples were analysed and while 298 samples were found to be either substandard or misbranded, none were found to be unsafe. Based on this, seven criminal cases were launched of which four were were convicted and a fine of Rs 80,000 was collected. Additionally, 210 civil cases were launched leading to the conviction of 177 persons and a fine of Rs 18.57 lakh was imposed.

Similarly, in the case of milk products, a total of 659 samples were analysed from 32 districts and while 274 samples were found to be either substandard or misbranded, 24 samples were found unsafe. A total of 22 criminal cases were launched which led to the conviction of five persons and a fine of Rs 1.7 lakh was imposed. As regards civil cases, 158 were registered resulting in the conviction of 126 persons and a fine of Rs 21.29 lakh was imposed.

Earlier, the petitioner AP Suryaprakasam who had moved the plea based on the allegation of the State Dairy Minister himself that the milk supplied by private players were adulterated, said, going by the report which pertains to eight years, a mere 8,000 samples have been checked of which an alarming 30 per cent are substandard.