IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE TENTH DAY OF NOVEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION No.5177 of 2004 Between: M/s.Nagarjuna Natural Mineral Water rep.by its Proprietor Mr.K.Vijay S/o.subbaiah, Plot No.208, Maddupupadu Village, Kavali Post & Mandal, Nellore District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The General Manager, District Industries Centre Nellore, Nellore District. 2 The Food Inspector, Nellore Division, Nellore District. .....RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Aﬃdavit ﬁled herein the High Court will be pleased to to issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction declaring the action of the respondents in insisting the petitioner by way of issuing the notice vide proceedings No.66/NLR/2002, daated 29-9-2003 directing the petitioner to stop Manufacturing of mineral water/packaged drinking water without B.I.S.Certiﬁcation inspite of this Honourable Court granting stay of GSR No.202(E), dated 21.3.2001 & GSR No.759(E) & GSR No.760 (E), dated 29.9.2000 in WPMP No.3503/2003 in WP No.2678/2003, dated 8.2.2004 as illegal, arbitrary and violative of principles of natural justice and also violative of the fundemental rights quaranteed under Articles 19 (g) and 21 of the constitution of India, and also violative of Sec.14 of the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986 and consequently to direct the respondents not to insist for compulsory B.I.S.Certiﬁcation for carrying on the unit of the petitioner. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.MD.SALEEM Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR MEDICAL HEALTH & FAMI.WELFARE The Court made the following : THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE V.V.S.RAO WRIT PETITION No.5177 of 2004 ORDER: In this writ petition, M/s.Nagarjuna Natural Mineral Water, a proprietary concern, engaged in the business of marketing and manufacturing of mineral packaged drinking water, is the petitioner, seeking declaration that the action of the respondents herein in insisting upon the petitioner for production of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Certiﬁcate and interfering with the manufacturing process and business activities of the petitioner as illegal and arbitrary. This Court even before admitting the writ petition, on 19.3.2004, passed interim orders directing the respondents not to interfere with the manufacturing process of mineral water and packaged drinking water and business activities of the petitioner by insisting BIS Certiﬁcate, pending further orders in writ petition. When the matter is called today, learned Counsel for the petitioner and learned Assistant Government Pleader for respondents brought to my notice that all the questions raised herein were considered by a Division Bench of this Court in Krishna Foods & Agro Minerals v Government of India[1] and the contentions of the petitioner were negatived. Insofar as the applicability of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 (the Act, for brevity) to water is concerned, the Division Bench having regard to the Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules, 1955 and other the relevant provisions, laid down as under: It is thus clear that water, which is excluded from the deﬁnition of ‘food’ in Section 2(v) of the PFA Act, is ordinary water, which is clearly distinguishable from all kinds of ‘mineral water’ or ‘natural water’ and ‘packaged drinking water’ which may derive from any source of potable water subjected to treatments etc. Therefore, the notiﬁcation issued by the Central Government dated 29-03-2001 declaring ‘packaged drinking water’ as ‘food’ for the purposes of provisions of the PFA Act, in no manner amounts to amending the provisions of the PFA Act as contended by the learned counsel for the petitioners. The article of ‘packaged drinking water’ is added as an additional item as ‘food’ for the purposes of the PFA Act in view of its nature and substance etc. The ‘packaged drinking water’ as deﬁned hereinabove is comprehensive in its term, which takes into account the water that, is being manufactured and processed by the petitioners’ companies. The impugned amendments, in our considered opinion, cannot be characterised as arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable and unjust as complained by the petitioners. The Division Bench also came to conclusion that the previous consultation with Bureau of Indian Standards is not required when the standard for articles is prescribed by BIS. The relevant observations made therein are as follows: That a reading of Section 2(a) together with 2(g) of the BIS Act makes it abundantly clear that the requirement of use of standard mark for article and process is not conﬁned to articles or process manufactured or produced by the scheduled industry alone. The requirement of previous consultation with the Bureau by the Central Government as is required under Section 14 of the Act is only with reference to the article or process of the scheduled industry and not with regard to other articles. Therefore, following the Division Bench judgment in Krishna Foods & Agro Minerals (supra), the writ petition is dismissed. ___________ V.V.S. RAO, J November 10, 2008. YS To 1 The General Manager, District Industries Centre Nellore, Nellore District. 2 The Food Inspector, Nellore Division, Nellore District. 3 Two CCs to Government Pleader for Medical, Health and Family Welfare, High Court Buildings, Hydeabad. 4 Two C.D. copies. [1] 2004(6) ALD 338 (DB)