JUDGMENT :

PAMIDIGHANTAM SRI NARASIMHA, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. Tirth and prasad offered at places of worship are regarded as sacred and bond the worshiper with the worshipped. While in temples and gurudwaras, prasad or bhog may be an essential part of their religion, it is not uncommon for other places of worship to serve some food, toast or drink as a religious offering.

3. As of 2019, it is believed that India has a place of worship for every 400 people. While in most of these religious places, food is prepared and served at a large scale on special occasions, there are hundreds of temples and gurudwaras, which serve tens of thousands of devotees twice every day. Several temples and gurudwaras have their own unique and traditional way of preparing the prasad or bhog like the Laddu of Tirupati and Karah Prasad of the Golden Temple at Amritsar¹[Guidance Document for Maintaining Food Safety & Hygiene in Places of Worship, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, 1st Edition, January 2018.]. Though somewhat connected with divine blessing in the form of prasad or bhog, this case draws us back to aggressive competing business interests - for supply of 7000 kilograms of cardamom for making Aravana Prasadam.

4. Travancore Devaswom Board is in appeal challenging the decision of the High Court of Kerala² [Arising out of order dated 27.03.2023 in I.A. No. 3 of 2023 and judgment and final order dated 11.04.2023 passed by the High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam in W.P. No. 41743 of 2022.] allowing the writ petition filed as a public interest litigation by respondent company in a contract by tender for sourcing raw material for preparation of Aravana Prasadam in the Sabarimala Temple. By the first impugned order dated 27.03.2023, the High Court confirmed the order restraining distribution of Aravana Prasadam and by the second impugned order dated 11.04.2023, the High Court finally allowed the writ petition and directed – (i) prosecution of the appellant board for violation of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006³[Hereinafter referred to as the ‘Act’.]; (ii) that the appellant board is a ‘food business operator’ as per Section 3(1)(j) of the Act; and (iii) that the seized stock shall be destroyed in accordance with law.

Facts:

5. The appellant-Board is a statutory and an autonomous body which manages certain temples in the southern part of India, including the Sabarimala Temple. One of the many functions of the appellant-Board, in so far as the Sabarimala Temple is concerned, is the preparation and distribution of the Aravana Prasadam. The appellant-Board is also tasked with procuring the raw material necessary for its preparation. One such raw material is cardamom. In order to procure the same, the appellant-Board issues tenders in frequent intervals. Respondent no. 1 was the successful bidder in 2021 and it supplied 9000 kilograms of cardamom to the appellant-Board for the years 2021-2022.

6. In order to procure cardamoms for the period from 01.11.2022 to 30.09.2023, the appellant-Board issued a tender on 16.06.2022. However, this tender was cancelled as all the bidders supplied cardamom which contained pesticides beyond the permissible limit. A fresh tender came to be issued on 24.08.2022 and this was also cancelled for the same reason. It is an admitted position that respondent no. 1 has participated in these tenders.

7. Since the first two tenders had failed to fetch an appropriate bid, the appellant-Board issued a third tender on 12.10.2022. However, as the festive season was fast-approaching, the appellant-Board was constrained to invoke the urgency clause and authorise the Executive Officer of Sabarimala Temple to procure cardamom from local sources. Accordingly, on 04.11.2022, since a decent number of cardamom traders were present in the temple premises, a notice inviting quotations along with samples was published on the notice board of the Sabarimala Temple.

8. Pursuant to the above notice, four bids were received. Respondent no.