JUDGMENT

Altamas Kabir, J. —

1. All these appeals are directed against the judgment dated 19th February, 2009, passed by a learned Single Judge of the Kerala High Court dismissing the several petitions filed by the Appellants under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, for quashing of the several prosecutions commenced against them. The Appellants in Criminal Appeal No.836 of 2010, Pepsico India Holdings Pvt. Ltd., is the manufacturer of Sweetened Carbonated Water and is being prosecuted for the presence of Carbofuran in its product. These appeals throw up certain questions relating to the maintainability of the criminal prosecutions launched against the Appellants, namely :

(1) In the absence of any prescribed and validated method of analysis under Section 23(1-A)(hh) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954, hereinafter referred to as “the 1954 Act”, could a prosecution have been launched against the Appellants based on a report submitted by the Public Analyst using the method of the Directorate General of Health Services (D.G.H.S.) ?

(2) Could a prosecution have been launched against the Appellants in the absence of any validated method of analysis to ascer