Center got notice from SC on soft drinks

New Delhi, Jan 3: The concern of cola industry remains under judicial scanner. Shaking the Rs 5000-crore soft drinks industry in the country, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre about the presence of hazardous ingredients in carbonated colas being sold through lakhs of outlets on a petition by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL). CPIL had petitioned the court, saying the government has a duty to protect the life of citizens, but has taken no initiative in this regard despite several research findings that soft drink contents were harmful, especially to children.

The petitioner contended about the lack of effectiveness of laws. As a result, there had been an open invitation to the soft drinks industry to add harmful ingredients in their products and make them more attractive for sales, the petitioner said.

Citizens were being kept in the dark by not being provided correct information about the contents of soft drinks and it said there was misrepresentation in advertisements by soft drink manufacturers like Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

The petitioner alleged that the central government had not taken any initiative to get an expert study conducted into the contents of the soft drinks despite adverse comments by a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the harmful effects of the contents.

The petitioner sought a direction to the central government to set up an independent expert/technical committee to evaluate the harmful effects of soft drinks on human health and a direction to the government to put a regulatory regime in place which could control and check the contents and a further direction to soft drinks manufacturers to disclose the contents and their quantity on the labels of soft drinks.

“The petitioner, after an extensive research and analyzing various studies conducted all over the world, has found that the contents used in soft drinks are harmful for human consumption,” they said.

It said that in early 2003, a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) was constituted to examine the pesticide content in water used in soft drinks after a report of the Center for Science and Environment was made public.