Taking a serious note of government’s “wilful inaction” to implement the Food Safety and Standards Act, the Supreme Court has said it will be forced to pass “judicial orders” if it failed to regulate soft drink companies.

Coming down heavily on the Centre, a bench comprising Justices A K Mathur and Dalveer Bhandari, which was hearing a public interest litigation by Centre for Public Interest Litigation, an NGO, asked the Centre on Friday why it had failed to implement the Act despite it being passed by Parliament and having received the President’s assent last year in August.

The court directed Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran to inform it by September 5, the next date of hearing, as to why the Act has not been brought into force.

Besides, it asked him to be present on the next date of hearing rather than sending any other law officer in view of the government’s dilly-dallying attitude to addressing the issue. However, Parasaran’s contention that “there were some procedural difficulties in implementing the Act” failed to impress the bench.

“When both the Houses of Parliament have passed the Act and it has received the President’s assent and has been published, then why is  there  a delay in notifying and implementing it,” the bench asked.

Allegations
The court observed that allegations levelled by CPIL counsel Prashant Bhushan that the government was shying away from implementing the Act seemed to be true.

“Allegations are justified. Your wilful inaction is giving a chance to Bhushan to raise such allegations. The government is doing some hanky-panky,” Justice Mathur observed. Raising doubts over the government’s sincerity CPIL counsel Prashant,  Bhushan argued the issue was important as it involved the health of people, particularly children.