SC dismisses Coca Cola's plea in Adulteration row

Soft drink giant, Coca Cola, received a setback on Monday with the Supreme Court dismissing a petition filed by the company's local arm challenging criminal proceedings initiated against it by the Rajasthan Government in an alleged "adulteration case." A bench of Justices B N Aggrawal and G S Singhvi also expressed anger over the fact that despite registration of a criminal case against Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd, manufacturers of Coca Cola, and its officials did not come up for hearing even once in six years. "It indicates that the entire criminal justice system is rotting," the bench observed during the brief hearing of the case. The apex court questioned senior counsel U U Lalit appearing for the company as to why the company did not move the court for getting itself cleared and instead waited for six years to file a petition in the Rajasthan High Court for quashing the criminal cases. "How come the case has not come up for hearing for five-six years?" the bench questioned the counsel while dismissing the company's petition challenging the high court order. On 26th September,2000, the Food Inspector, Sikar had filed a criminal case under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA) against the company and its officials on the ground that chemical analysis of a certain sample was found to be adulterated. Though the case was filed by the Food Inspector on 26th September, 2000, the case did not come up for hearing until 17th October, 2006 when a bailable warrant was issued against the company officials. However, the company had claimed that the complaint was false as the Public Analyst's report had contradicted the same as only misbranding of the product. According to the company, the Public Analyst report at one place has termed the samples as carbonated water and at another place as "synthetic fruit beverage." The high court had earlier vacated the interim stay it had initially granted on the criminal proceedings launched against the company by the Food Inspector Sikar before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate. Aggrieved by the high court's order, the soft drink company had filed the SLP in the apex court

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