JSA successfully represented and defended PepsiCo India Holdings Private Limited before the Supreme Court of India in appeals filed by the State of Uttar Pradesh challenging the judgement of Allahabad High Court quashing FIRs registered under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (“IPC”) and Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 (“PFA”) for alleged offences of food adulteration.
The FIRs which were the subject matter of the Appeals were registered under the IPC and PFA/ Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (“FSS Act”) against PepsiCo (and its officials) for alleged offences of food adulteration after the enactment of the FSS Act. The High Court of Allahabad, vide judgment dated September 08, 2010, quashed the FIRs after considering the intent, purposes and the scheme of the FSS Act and holding that FSS Act would have an overriding effect on all food related laws including the PFA and consequently, invocation of Section 272 and 273 of IPC concerning food adulteration was bad in law.
The central issue before the Supreme Court of India in these appeals was “whether after enactment of a special legislation i.e., FSS Act being complete code on subject matter of “food” with a comprehensive procedure and inbuilt safeguards, the FSS Act will override the provisions of general law i.e., IPC?”
The Supreme Court, while upholding the High Court’s judgment, held as follows:
- There are very exhaustive substantive and procedural provisions in the FSS Act for dealing with offences concerning unsafe food.
- Section 89 of the FSS Act gives the Act an overriding effect in respect of any other law for the time being in force. This is not limited to food-related laws but other laws as well.
- When the offences relating to food-adulteration under the IPC i.e., Sections 272 and 273 are made out, the same would also attract Section 59 of the FSS Act. The penalties under Section 59 of the FSS Act are more stringent, when compared to IPC.
- Section 59 of the FSS Act will override the provisions of Section 272 and 273 of IPC by virtue of the overriding provision in the FSS Act (i.e. Section 89 of the FSS Act).
The judgment is of prime significance to the food industry as there was a tendency to invoke the provisions of IPC instead of the FSS Act. This judgement will be a huge relief to the food industry as the local police will not be able to invoke Sections 272 and 273 of IPC for offences related to food.
PepsiCo was represented by JSA both before the Supreme Court of India and before the High Court of Allahabad.
Our Disputes Team Comprised Lead Partner – Dheeraj Nair, Partner – Kumar Kislay, Senior Associate – Avni Sharma, and Associate – Ridhima Sharma.
Avni’s focus areas include corporate commercial disputes, including pre-litigation strategic advisory, litigation, arbitrations and corporate insolvencies.