In a case where a milk khoya seller has been criminally charged, the Chhattisgarh High Court said that while there is a provision for fine, it cannot be tried in a criminal court. The High Court thus dismissed the challan presented in the Judicial Magistrate First Class court in Akaltara in the non-standard milk khoya case.
The single-judge bench of Justice Sanjay K. Agarwal heard the petition filed by milk khoya businessman Abhishek Gupta of Bilaspur. The petitioner’s advocate Aman Upadhyay said the Akaltara court has charged the petitioner which is not correct as per the rules.
During the HC hearing, the question arose whether any criminal charge sheet could be introduced for an offence committed under Section 26 (2) (ii) of Food Safety and Standards Act 2006?
After hearing all the parties, the High Court stated that no charge sheet can be presented for committing the offence under Section 26 (2) (ii) of the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006. For this, a fine can be imposed under Section 68 of the Act (food which does not cause loss of life).
The High Court said there are two types of offences under the Food Safety and Standards Act. All offences which are punished only with fine, such cases can be heard by the authority. They do not have jurisdiction of criminal court. At the same time, the imprisonment comes under the jurisdiction of the criminal court. However, it did not come up in the High Court that the crime of which category is punishable under which section.
After the order of the High Court, the action under the Food Safety and Standards Act will now be presented in three courts.
-Cases of fine before the Adjudicating Authority
-JMFC with a sentence of less than three years
-Cases with convictions of more than three years will be heard in the special court.
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The fact of the case is that the petitioner had given 20 kg milk khoya for sale to Kewat Hotel, Baloda. Of this milk khoya, 2 kg was taken for investigation under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 on July 26, 2017. According to the Food Analyst report on August 9, 2017, the quality of the milk khoya sent for investigation was not found of standard quality. Whereby it was declared non-standard.