ORDER :

1. The question to be resolved is whether the time limit prescribed under section 77 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (for brevity ‘the Act’) for taking cognizance of offences under the Act can be extended on the basis that the delay occurred due to ‘procedural and administrative reasons’.

2. Petitioner is a manufacturer of pan masala and is the accused in four criminal cases pending as S.T. No. 622/2015, S.T. No. 623/2015, S.T. No. 624/2015 & S.T. No. 52/2016, all before the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court, Palakkad. The prosecutions have been initiated alleging violation of sections 3(zz)(v), 26(2)(i), 27(2)(c) and section 59 of the Act, read with regulation 3.1.7(1) of the Food Safety and Standards and (Food Products Standards and Additives) Regulations, 2011, (for short the Regulation). These four criminal miscellaneous cases filed under section 482 of Cr.P.C. have challenged the prosecution of the petitioner in the above-referred four cases.

3. In all the above cases except one, the product pan masala was on analysis, detected with Magnesium Carbonate, while in S.T. No. 52/2016, the product was a mouth freshener called Pass-Pass, which was found to contain Mag