MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday set aside the suspension of licence of AR Dairy Food Private Limited, which had been withheld after the firm allegedly supplied substandard ghee to the prasadam unit of TTD.
Justice V Lakshminarayan remitted the matter back to the Central Licensing Authority under Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, for reconsideration within a month, adding that the designated officer should pass an order whether to suspend the licence for all its activities, or for manufacturing, transportation and sale of ghee alone.
The judge further observed that even if the officer decides to suspend the licence, it could only be an interim measure and therefore should not exceed more than six weeks, within which the officer should take a decision on cancellation of the licence by following the established procedures.
He added that since he has passed the order over technical grounds, the company has to pay a cost of Rs 2 lakh to the licencing authority within two weeks. Till such a decision is taken, the judge permitted the company to operate its other units, except ghee and milk powder. The order was passed on a petition filed by the company challenging the suspension of licence on February 14.
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