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2012 Supreme(Kar) 648
High Court of Karnataka
MR. VIKRAMAJIT SEN & ARAVIND KUMAR, JJ.
Lochamesh B. Hugar & Others
Versus
Union of India Represented by its secretary & Others
W.P.No.17713 of 2012 c/w W.P.Nos.24257 - 283 of 2012 & 47320 - 330/2012 c/w 17467 - 17498 of 2012 (GM-RES-PIL)
Decided On : 09-11-2012
Jayakumar S. Patil, Sr. Advocate, a/w Pruthvi Wodeyar, G.S. Prasanna Kumar, Adithya Sondhi, Smt. Sinchana, Kalyan Basavaraj, ASG, R.G. Kolle, Kalyana Basavaraj, AGA, Smt. P. Anu Chengappa, Devanand, V.V. Gunjal, V. Lakshminarayana, R. Bhadrinath, Dayanand S. Patil, Sinchana, K. Krishna, Advocates.
Headnote:FOOD SAFETY & STANDARDS ACT, 2006 - Sections 3(1) (z), 92(2), (O) & 31 & Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules, 2005, Rule 49(28) & Food Safety & Standards (Food Products Standards & Food Additives) Regulations, 2011, Regulation 02.10.08 & Food Safety & Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulations, 2011, Regulation 2.3.17: [Vikramajit Sen, C.J. & Aravind Kumar, J] "Packaged drinking water" - Whether packing processed water in a container or can would come within definition of ’packaged drinking water’ and it would not be outside scope of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006?. Held, The word ’container should receive an interpretation in its broader sense and also with widest sense by judging from the colour of the words it keep it company viz., bottle cascade, tin, barrel etc. While interpreting a word in a statute particularly a statute which concerns the safety of human beings, the word used in the statute have to be given liberal interpretation and not restrictive meaning. Merely because some of the manufacturers are supplying the processed water in containers and as such it would not become packaged drinking water as defined under Section 3 2(zh) of FSS Act has to be held absurd as it would result in stretching logic to an illogical end or in other words such proposition is to be construed as one of fallacy. As noticed from the words used in the definition clause of FSS Act, 2006 namely Section 3(zh),it has brought within its purview to mean and include the words used therein i.e., Pre-packed box, bottle, casket, tin, barrel, case, pouch, receptacle, sack, bag, wrapper or such other things in which an article of food is packed and the Parliament has consciously used the words "such other things" in which an article of food can be packed and it would necessarily mean to include the containers also. Doctrine of Noscitur a sociis (the meaning of the word is to be adjudged by the company it keeps, which rule is wider than the rule of ejusdem generis, would apply to the words "such other things" on hand.
It cannot be said that the word ’container’ is not to be found in the definition clause namely section 3(zh) which defines what a package means and as such these manufacturers are not exigible to the provisions of FSS Act. If such proposition is accepted then the very purpose of the Act gets truncated or negated, in as much as the legislature have consciously used the phrase ’such other things’ after the words pre-packed box, bottle, casket, tin, barrel, case, pouch, receptacle, sack, bag, wrapper, which can only mean and include that the food article should hold in those items or which is capable of being packed and stored in any other form. The word ’container’ is of the genes of box, bettle barrel, etc. and ’container’ is of the same family and as such the word ’container’ cannot be excluded from the definition clause.
FOOD SAFETY & STANDARDS ACT, 2006 - Sections 92(2) (0), 31 & 32 & Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards & Food Additives) Regulations, 2011, Regulation 02.10.08 & Food Safety & Standards (Prohibition & Restriction on Sales) Regulations, 2011, Regulation 2.3.17: [Vikramajit Sen, C.J. & Aravind Kumar, J] Packaged drinking water - Large number of manufacturers running units for manufacture and sale of packaged drinking water from long period of time without BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) certification. It would be just and necessary to grant these manufacturers some breathing space or time to enable them to submit applications for obtaining such certification during which period the respondent authorities would not take any coercive steps. Accordingly manufacturers were given 15 days time. Authorities were further directed that if any of the manufacturers fail to comply with directions or conditions imposed by authorities to bring their units to the standards prescribed under the Act and Regulations, they will be at liberty to proceed in accordance with law.
FOOD SAFETY & STANDARDS ACT, 2006 - Food Safety & Standards (Prohibition & Restrictions on Sales) Regulations, 2011 - Clause 2.3.14: [Vikramajit Sen, C.J & Aravind Kumar, JJ] Packaged drinking water - Sale without BIS certification - Challenge to - Breathing space allowed to manufacturers to comply therewith - Till then no coercive steps to be taken by authorities.
Aravind Kumar, J.
“WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE, BUT NOT A DROP TO DRINK” are the words of celebrated English Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772.1834)
PREFACE
1. In these petitioners, an important issue touching the lives of human beings has come up for consideration namely, WATER which is one of the basic necessities for human existence. Several debates, discussions, deliberations, seminars across the world is being held or conducted on this vital subject since it has effects on the very existence of the human race.
2. Water is considered a purifier in most religions. Major faiths that incorporate ritual washing (ablution) include Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Rastafari movement, Shinto, Taoism, and Wicca. Immersion (or aspersion or affusion) of a person in water is a central sacrament of Christianity (where it is called baptism); it is also a part of the practice of other religions, including Islam (Ghusl), Judaism (mikvah) and Sikhism (Amrit Sanskar).
3. Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H20. Water covers 70.9% of the Earth’s surface, and is vital for all known forms of life. On Earth, 96.5% of the planet’s water is found in oceans, 1.7% in groundwater, 1.7% in Glaciers and the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland, a small fraction in other large water bodies, and 0.001% in the air as vapor, clouds (formed of solid and liquid water particles suspended in air), and precipitation. Only 2.5% of the Earth’s water is freshwater, and 98.8% of that water is in ice and groundwater. Less than 0.3% of all freshwater is in rivers, lakes and the atmosphere, and an even smaller amount of the Earth’s freshwater (0.003%) is contained within biological bodies and manufactured products.
4. Safe drinking water is essential to humans and other lifeforms. Access to safe drinking water has improved over the last decades in almost every part of the world, but approximately one billion people still lack access to safe water. However, some observers have estimated that by 2025 A.D. more than half of the world population will be facing water-based vulnerability. A recent report by World Health Organisation (November 2009) suggests that by 2030, in some developing regions of the world, water demand will exceed supply by 50% and thereby water plays in important role in the world economy.
5. This natural resource is becoming scarcer in certain places, and its availability is a major social and economic concern. Currently, about a billion people around the world routinely drink unhealthy water. Most countries accepted the goal of halving by 2015 the number of people worldwide who do not have access to safe water. Even if this difficult goal is met, it will still leave more than an estimated half a billion people without access to safe drinking water. The World Health Organization estimates that safe water could prevent 1.4. million child deaths from diarrhea each year. Water, however, is not a finite resource, but rather re-circulated as potable water in precipitation in quantities many degrees of magnitude higher than human consumption. Therefore, it is the relatively small quantity of water in reserve in the earth (about 1% of our drinking water supply, which is replenished in aquifers around every 1 to 10 years), that is a non-renewable resource, and it is, rather, the distribution of potable and irrigation water which is scarce, rather than the actual amount of it that exists on the earth.
6. Water being an integral part of living creatures is an inseparable part of human beings. On the one hand, the population of the country is increasing in manifold numbers and on the other hand, the water resources to cater to the needs of these populace is dwindling day-by-day and thus a balancing act is required to be maintained.
7. The Constitution of India gives every citizen of the country a fundamental right under Part-III, Article 21 protection of life and person, liberty which envisages that no citizen shall be deprived of his
