INDIRA BANERJEE, J.

1. This writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, filed in public interest by a Member of the Legislative Assembly in the State of Tamil Nadu, elected from the Chepauk-Triplicane Legislative Assembly Constituency, is directed against the illegal manufacture and sale of chewable forms of tobacco like Gutkha and Pan Masala, which are believed to cause life threatening and/or fatal ailments such as cancer, inter alia, in the State of Tamil Nadu.

2. The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, hereinafter referred to as “the Food Safety Act”, has been enacted to consolidate the laws relating to food and to establish the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India for laying down science based standards for articles of food and to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import, to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

3. Some of the relevant provisions of the Food Safety Act are set out herein below for convenience:

“Section 3. Definitions.

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,

(a) “adulterant” means any material which is or could be employed for making the food unsafe or sub-standard or mis-branded or containing extraneous matter;

(b) “advertisement” means any audio or visual publicity, representation or pronouncement made by means of any light, sound, smoke, gas, print, electronic media, internet or website and includes through any notice, circular, label, wrapper, invoice or other documents;

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(e) “Commissioner of Food Safety” means the Commissioner of Food Safety appointed under section 30;

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(i) “extraneous matter” means any matter contained in an article of food which may be carried from the raw materials, packaging materials or process systems used for its manufacture or which is added to it, but such matter does not render such article of food unsafe;

(j) “Food” means any substance, whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed, which is intended for human consumption and includes primary food to the extent defined in clause (zk), genetically modified or engineered food or food containing such ingredients, infant food, packaged drinking water, alcoholic drink, chewing gum, and any substance, including water used into the food during its manufacture, preparation or treatment but does not include any animal feed, live animals unless they are prepared or processed for placing on the market for human consumption, plants, prior to harvesting, drugs and medicinal products, cosmetics, narcotic or psychotropic substances:

Provided that the Central Government may declare, by notification in the Official Gazette, any other article as food for the purposes of this Act having regards to its use, nature, substance or quality;

(k) “food additive” means any substance not normally consumed as a food by itself or used as a typical ingredient of the food, whether or not it has nutritive value, the intentional addition of which to food for a technological (including organoleptic) purpose in the manufacture, processing, preparation, treatment, packing, packaging, transport or holding of such food results, or may be reasonably expected to result (directly or indirectly), in it or its by-products becoming a component of or otherwise affecting the characteristics of such food but does not include “contaminants” or substances added to food for maintaining or improving nutritional qualities;

(l) “Food Analyst” means an analyst appointed under section 45;

(m) “Food Authority” means the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India established under section 4;

(n) “Food business” means any undertaking, whether for profit or not and whether public or private, carrying out any of the activities related to any stage of manufacture, processing, packaging, storage, transportation, distribution of food, import and includes food services, catering services, sale of food or food ingredients