Punjab & Haryana high court asks Centre if they plan to open more labs to check cooking oil adulteration

The court was hearing a 2015 public interest litigation (PIL) by a Kapurthala resident Rajesh Gupta

The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has directed the Centre to apprise the court whether it has plans to open more laboratories to check adulteration of miscible oil in cooking oils available in the market.

The Punjab & Haryana HC expressed its displeasure over the lab being 1,500 km away from Chandigarh. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The HC bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Anil Kshetarpal termed it “unfortunate” that despite edible oils of different types being consumed in very large quantities throughout the country, the nearest laboratory to conduct the aforesaid test is situated nearly 1,500 kms from Chandigarh, in Nagpur.

The court was hearing a 2015 public interest litigation (PIL) by a Kapurthala resident Rajesh Gupta, who had alleged that wholesale dealers, oil millers and wholesale traders in the trade of edible mustard oil were playing havoc with the lives of the people and providing ‘poison in the form of food’ which was not fit for human consumption by blatantly ignoring provisions of the Food Safety Act. “… various firms in Punjab were selling adulterated mustard oil by labelling it as ‘pure refined mustard oil’ which could be sold in the market for human consumption. Some firms were selling ‘refined rice bran oil’ as ‘mustard oil’ in order to deceive the public and maximise profits,” he had submitted, further alleging that the millers were working in violation of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, and even Agmark, a certification mark, was being misused by traders in violation of the Act.

During the course of the PIL, some samples were sent for examination to the Regional Agmark Laboratory, Amritsar. However, the lab said that the tests for other miscible oil as possible adulterants and percentage thereof were not performed as there was no availability of required facilities in this laboratory. For the same, samples can be sent to Central Agmark Laboratory, Nagpur, for analysis.

Additional solicitor general Satya Pal Jain, who was asked to check where samples could be sent, had told the court that the nearest laboratory where the test for other miscible oil can be conducted is the Central Agmark Laboratory, Directorate of Marketing and Inspection, North Ambajari Road, Nagpur.

The court expressed its displeasure over the lab being 1,500 km away from Chandigarh and asked Jain to apprise the court by January 22 as to what is the present policy of the central government and whether there is proposal for opening other laboratories across the country and if not then why.