Lawyer’s PIL in Bombay HC seeks consumer protection fund for Maggi “victims”

The country’s most popular instant noodles is in the Bombay High Court once again. But this time around, it is the central government, and not manufacturer Nestle, that may be called to task..A Bench of VM Kanade and Swapna Joshi JJ. has issued notice in a PIL that seeks the constitution of a consumer protection fund for those who may be victims of lead poisoning after consuming Maggi noodles..The petitioner, practicing lawyer Sumedha Rao, told Bar & Bench that,.“Nestle had claimed they destroyed 17,000 crore packets of Maggi but, if they (Nestle) were confident of lead content in their product being within the prescribed limit then what was the need for destroying these packets?.Experts say the effects [of lead poisoning] can be seen even after 30 years. I have also drawn a parallel with the Bhopal gas tragedy.”.Rao’s petition, which was filed in 2015, states that,.“…it is just and necessary to constitute a fund, for payouts to Claimants who may need medical treatment in future for the ailments caused due to lead poisoning by consuming maggi noodles over several years.”.Although the court has sought the reply of the Union of India, it has directed the removal of Nestle India as a respondent..This development comes more than a year after the Food Safety Standards Authority of India had imposed a ban on Maggi noodles after it found that the noodles had exceeded the permissible lead limit. Eventually, the Bombay High Court set aside this ban but asked Nestle to go for a fresh round of testing at three, independent laboratories. Nestle cleared these tests..This was not the only litigation surrounding Maggi. Both, the Supreme Court and the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission had ordered safety tests of 29 samples. These tests however did not find excess of lead nor MSG..This PIL will now come up for hearing on October 10.