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Informist, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court has ordered a joint meeting between directors of Legal Metrology and Drug Controller General of India to give a comprehensive decision on whether red and brown or green dots should be incorporated on packaging of cosmetics and toiletries to specify non-vegetarian or vegetarian origin. Asking both the departments to file a joint affidavit on the issue in two months, the high court placed the matter for hearing on Apr. 27.

 

The high court said that though the matter was pending for more than 10 years, the issue of whether the reflection of the red and brown or green dot has to be done or not across categories of products, has not been taken up. On the one hand, legal metrology rules prescribe use of the dots mandatorily, while the Drug Technical Advisory Board which advises the Drug Controller General of India has made this voluntary, the court said. There is a clear contradiction in the stands of both these departments, it added.

 

The high court was hearing a petition by Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd., a company involved in manufacturing and marking various fast moving consumer goods and health products, including Dettol, Harpic and other health care and personal hygiene products such as soap, hand wash and sanitisers. The petitioner had challenged the amendment in Rule 6 (8) of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, which was introduced by a notification in 2014 by the Director of Legal Metrology.

 

The amendment stated that packages containing soap, shampoos, toothpastes and other cosmetics and toiletries should bear at the top of its principal display panel a red or as the case may be, brown dot for products of non-vegetarian origin and a green dot for products of vegetarian origin.

 

The petitioner had said that the Director of Legal Metrology would not have jurisdiction in prescribing the requirement for display of a red dot, brown dot or a green dot for products of vegetarian and non-vegetarian, respectively. The decision ought to be taken up by the Drug Controller General of India, under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, said the petitioner. 

 

In its meetings, the Drug Technical Advisory Board agreed to not mandate the indication of green or red and brown dot on every package of cosmetics, as it might complicate the regulation and add regulatory burden on stakeholders. It could be voluntary and left to the company's own decision and accordingly, an advisory might be issued for labeling red and brown or green dots on packages of soaps, shampoos, toothpastes and other cosmetics and toiletries for non-vegetarian or vegetarian origin, the board said.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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