What happened: Bombay High Court pulls up Maharashtra FDA on government canteens

A bench of the Bombay High Court criticised the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for allegedly issuing a clean report to Maharashtra government canteens while taking stricter action against private restaurants. The court treated the dispute as a matter of fair, impartial, and uniform enforcement, and raised due process concerns.

The High Court used a court-appointed inspection to challenge the FDA’s submissions. A panel of four lawyers inspected three canteens inside Mantralaya (the Maharashtra state secretariat) and reported hygiene failures.

The court-appointed panel’s reported findings included:

In court, the bench said these findings contradicted an FDA report submitted to the court claiming 98% compliance with food safety rules for government canteens. After reviewing photographs from the canteens, the bench expressed shock and pointed to inconsistency in enforcement.

The bench’s comparison was based on how the FDA acted in a similar situation for a private restaurant named Poornima. The court noted that the FDA had issued a suspension notice to Poornima for similar deficiencies, but had not issued comparable notice or action for the Mantralaya government canteens.

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