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Informist, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026

 

--HC asks FSSAI not to cancel ITC's licence on notices over 100% atta claims 

--HC relief to ITC in FSSAI case till Sept 9, next date of hearing 

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court Tuesday asked the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India not to cancel ITC Ltd.'s licence, following the food regulator's notices to the company to remove the labels claiming 100% Atta, 100% Madhya Pradesh Wheat, 0% Maida on its product Aashirvaad M.P. Chakki Atta. The high court asked the food regulator to hold their horses on ITC's plea till the next date of hearing on Sept. 9.

 

In one of the notices, 30 days were given to ITC to file a response, in another notice, only 15 days were given, noted the high court. Further, both the notices were issued from different places of Delhi and Kolkata, it noted. Since the issue regarding jurisdiction is yet to be decided and the courts being closed this week, an interim relief is granted to ITC in the 100% claims case, said Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma. She asked the food regulator to file brief notes on the jurisdiction issue. 

 

The case has its genesis from the food safety regulator's advisory to all food business operators to "discontinue the usage of the term 100% on food product labels, packaging, and promotional content." The same is completely beyond the scope of food safety regulator's powers under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, said ITC. Even the food regulator's own website provides an example of an acceptable front-of-pack label claim to include "100% natural," only with the caveat that the same must be backed by empirical ingredient testing, said ITC. The advisory is ex-facie arbitrary and without any rational basis, and is liable to be struck down being in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India, it said.

 

On Aug. 10, the assistant director technical of the food safety regulator in Kolkata issued a notice calling ITC to clarify as to why no action shall be initiated against them as per the provision of the 2006 Act. The food safety regulator gave ITC 30 days to file a response. The notice has been issued without jurisdiction and in excess of authority available under the law as it does not disclose under what provision or authorisation was the assistant director empowered to issue the same, said ITC.

 

Thereafter, on Aug. 13, an improvement notice was given to ITC by the food regulator to remove the 100% claims in 15 days, failing which the company's licence would be cancelled. ITC said that it was denied an opportunity to demonstrate that its products are in compliance with the 2006 Act. This is in clear violation of the Principles of Natural Justice, it said. This is particularly important because the improvement notice carries serious civil consequences, namely the withdrawal of existing packaging and stock, the delisting of the petitioner's product from e-commerce platforms, and the threatened suspension of the petitioner's central licence which will prevent it from carrying out its foods businesses across all of its food products, said ITC.

 

At 1313 IST, the shares of ITC were down 0.1% at INR 269.40 on the National Stock Exchange.  End 

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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