India's Supreme Court has stayed the class suit proceedings initiated by the government before the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) against Nestle India.Supreme Court ordered for fresh testing to be conducted on Maggi samples in the government-accredited laboratory in Mysore and not in Chennai as was previously directed by the Commission, reports The Times of India.
The court has ordered that all the lab reports must be submitted to it.
The judicial bench was quoted by the Times of India as saying: "It is directed that the local commissioner, appointed by NCDRC, shall send samples earlier collected by him to the Mysore laboratory for tests. The test reports, including earlier ones, shall be produced before this court. NCDRC shall not proceed in the case."
The case will be heard on 13 January.
Senior advocate Harish Slave who is appearing on behalf of Nestle India, argued that NCDRC should not have encouraged the government's plea as the matter was still pending before the Bombay High Court.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that no fault can be picked from the NCDRC order and that the government approached the forum in the interests of the consumers in the country.
After hearing a lawsuit filed by the government against Nestle India, the consumer court ordered tests on 16 additional samples of Maggi noodles by designated laboratories. The Commission ordered all testing to be completed by the next hearing which was scheduled on 11 January.
The consumer affairs ministry had filed a class action suit against Nestle India with NCDRC, claiming that the company was involved in unfair trade practices and wrong advertising and sought Rs 6.4bn ($9.7m) in damages.
In its petition before the Supreme Court, FSSAI has raised doubts on the authenticity of the samples that were provided to the government accredited labs for re-test. The food regulator stated that the Bombay High Court should have picked random samples from the market instead of asking Nestle to provide the samples.
FSSAI claims that by seeking the samples from Nestle the sanctity of the re-testing procedure was lost.
The FSSAI officials who filed the petition also noted that releasing Maggi back into the market without gaining a fresh permission from the authorities also means a breach of a particular provision in the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, reported The Indian Express.
