Supreme Court: Will fix timeline for FSSAI to enforce front-of-pack labelling

SC rejects FSSAI’s FoPL timeline, says 365-day voluntary rollout unreasonable

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court Monday refused to accept the timeline proposed by FSSAI for the implementation of front-of-pack labelling (FoPL) for food products, including four months' time for framing regulations and a 365-day voluntary implementation period for food businesses after notification, saying it was unreasonable and decided to fix the timeline for the food regulator.A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran, however, made it clear to the regulator that it has to implement the court's order, which is in the national interest, in true spirit and not delay implementation. It asked why the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had fixed such a long timeframe to implement it as consultations with stakeholders had taken place in 2022."Why voluntary compliance for a year?... Why do you want to start afresh with the exercise of hearing and calling for objections? You started in 2022, what did you do in the last four years?"SC also termed advocate Rajiv Shankar Dvivedi's plea for immediate implementation of FoPL as unreasonable and said it would pass an order to fix all contentious issues.Additional solicitor general Brijender Chahar, appearing for FSSAI, said the process initiated in 2022 was relating to a star-rating system based on an entirely different criterion. The bench, however, said the issue involved was very important and there should not be any more delay.

"We appreciate your initiative but there is a lot which is required to be done to give meaningful effect to what we want to achieve," SC said.

Reserving the order, SC told FSSAI, "Whatever order we now pass will be binding on you, and we expect you to implement it scrupulously. We are undertaking this entire exercise for the good of the nation and for the good of citizens. We will now pronounce the final order. And we will keep it after some time to report due compliance in each and every direction. Do not disappoint us on the day when the matter comes up for reporting compliance.