Mumbai, The Maharashtra FDA on Saturday said it would withdraw its order suspending the licences of five restaurants operating on the Mumbai Cricket Association premises, after the Bombay High Court warned of stinging orders against officials for taking a “pedantic instead of pragmatic view” of the situation.
The MCA had approached the high court challenging the FDA’s decision to suspend operations over alleged hygiene violations and third-party operational irregularities. There is no provision in the law that prohibits the same, the bench noted, pointing out that during the last hearing it had specifically asked FDA officials to apply their minds and take a pragmatic view of the situation. “However, despite clearly saying this, the FDA has disobeyed our order and taken a pedantic view instead of a pragmatic view. We are tired of scolding the department and officers all the time. It is now time to pass stinging orders. We will issue contempt action against the concerned officers. Pursuant to the court’s remarks, additional government pleader P P Kakade submitted that the FDA would withdraw its order suspending the licences of the five eateries.
The court accepted this and said since the eateries are now compliant with the rules, the order suspending their licenses stands vacated, and they can reopen their services. Let them convince us or go to jail,” the court said. The FDA on Saturday informed the court that it would issue a fresh notice to the MCA, and grant them a hearing on the issue of its contract with Shirke Infrastructure and then pass a reasoned order. The court disposed of the petitions on Saturday.
