Retail business: India
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Court judgements
Retailers can’t escape blame for packaged food in stores/ SC
Dhananjay Mahapatra, March 1, 2022: The Times of India
New Delhi: In a strong warning to retail chain stores, the Supreme Court refused to reverse the conviction of a superstore owner found guilty of keeping packaged foodgrain with impermissible preservatives but agreed to consider his release under Probation of Offenders Act. Appearing for owners of Theni Anantham Super Store Wonder, senior advocate Anitha Shenoy argued that her client was a mere retailer and not producer of the foodgrain, which was found to contain preservative sulphur-dioxide. “This does not entail any injury to the consumer,” she argued. Finding the bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli unconvinced, Shenoy took the last resort and argued that this was the first time the owner was booked under the Food Safety and Standards Act and hence, entitled to relief under the Probation of Offenders Act.
The bench in its order said, “On hearing senior counsel and on expressing that the concurrent conviction handed down by the courts below would not call for interference, the counsel submits that as the petitioners have been convicted under the Food Safety and Adulteration Act, 2006, and there is no past history, Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 is applicable to him and seeks consideration in that regard. ”
“Issue limited notice to the respondent (food safety officer) to consider the applicability of Probation of Offenders Act, 1958 to the pet- itioners. In the meantime, order dated February 14 granting exemption from surrendering to the petitioners herein shall continue to operate until further orders,” the bench ordered.
The food safety officer had lifted samples of coriander (whole) in October 2011 from four packets displayed for consumers in the store. The samples were tested at Madurai and the food analyst report said the coriander grains were unsuitable for human consumption because of the presence of class-II preservative sulphur-dioxide.
The trial court had convicted the owner and manager of the superstore and sentenced each of them to three years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 each. The additional district judge as well as the Madras HC had concurred with the Theni trial court’s decision.
Sales
The segment-wise online share of the retail business in India, 2008> 2018
From: March 8, 2020: The Times of India
See graphic:
Retail trends in India in 2019, and projections for 2025
The segment-wise online share of the retail business in India, 2008> 2018
