Kerala HC issues notice to Spices Board on chilli PIL

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Kochi, April 10: The Kerala High Court has issued a notice to the Spices Board on the presence of carcinogenic sudan red dye in chilli powder. Admitting a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a social activist and environmentalist, the division bench, comprising acting chief justice KS Radhakrishnan and K Balakrishnan Nair, on Friday asked the first respondent Spices Board to file a statement with regard to all the charges in the writ petition.

The other respondents in the case are the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), the Union commerce secretary, the health and family welfare secretary and the three Mumbai-based exporters, Volga Spices, Gautam Exports and Paton Exports, whose licences have been suspended.

The petitioner CR Neelakandan Namboodiri contended that there were serious health hazards due to the distribution of chilli powder adulterated with carcinogenic sudan red, a dye used for colouring solvents, oils, waxes, petrol and shoe polishes. This has been banned in the European Union (EU).

The petitioner contended that through newspaper reports, he learnt that the licences of the exporters, who also traded in the domestic market, had been suspended by the Spices Board in 2003, after rapid alerts in the EU.

Earlier, the commerce ministry had suggested cancelling their licences, the DGFT later allowed them to go scot-free. This, the petitioner said, was due to the pressure to make undue favours, as seen in one of the notes from the DGFT’s office.