Forum says food safety inspectors collected Rs.18 lakh ‘arbitrarily’
The Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association on Monday
said that it would move the High Court to realise the estimated Rs.18
lakh collected “arbitrarily” by the office of the Food Safety
Commissioner from hoteliers in the State last year.
In
a statement here, association general secretary Moideen Kutty Haji
claimed that the High Court had upheld his organisation’s contention
that food safety officers had no right to impose fines.
The court had deemed illegal the practice of slapping “improvement notices” and fines on hoteliers at the same time, he said.
He
said that the court upheld the association’s argument that as per the
provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, only the “adjudication
officer” could impose fines.
The law bestowed no such authority on food safety inspectors.
Mr.
Moideen said the ‘capricious action’ by food safety inspectors had
caused huge losses to the hospitality industry and bankrupted hoteliers.
Many
establishments burdened by huge fines were forced to shut shop. He said
the State was morally bound to pay back the fines it had collected in
such a fashion.
Source:http://www.thehindu.com
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