Kerala court lifts cola ban: Coke, Pepsi relieved
Friday, 22 September 2006, 19:30 IST
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Thiruvananthapuram: Even as the Government of Kerala has decided to challenge a court decision Friday lifting the ban on sale of colas in the state, soft drinks majors Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have hailed the verdict. In an order Friday, a bench of the Kerala High Court consisting of Chief Justice V.K. Bali and Justice M. Ramachandran lifted the ban imposed Aug 9 by the state government on the production and sale of colas in the southern Indian state. "This decision can be taken only by the central government. The state government has no right. The order of the state government banning the products were harsh, unreasonable and taken hurriedly," said the bench after hearing all arguments. The two soft drinks giants - Coca-Cola and PepsiCo - that bore the brunt of the Kerala government's decision were obviously elated and said every effort will be made to commence with the sale of soft drinks in the state. "Coca-Cola India has always been completely confident of the safety of its soft drinks in India because they are produced to the same level of purity, regarding pesticides, as the EU criteria for bottled water," the company's statement said. "This high court order quashing the ban on PepsiCola in Kerala clearly validates our steadfast confidence in the quality and safety of our products," Pepsi said. "PepsiCo follows one quality standard across the globe." The two cola giants hoped other state governments would also reconsider similar orders and advisories issued by them given the law as interpreted by the Kerala High Court and the Supreme Court in a similar case earlier. But the state government was not pleased with the order and both Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and Law Minister M. Vijayakumar told reporters they would go for an appeal. "The lifting of the ban by the division bench of the high court is unfortunate. We will seek opinion from the state advocate general and other legal experts and will certainly go in for an appeal," Achuthanandan told reporters in Kannur. The ban had been imposed on the manufacture and sale of the soft drinks Pepsi and Coke in the state after tests by the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) showed high quantities of pesticides in 12 branded samples. In their petitions Aug 18, the cola giants pointed out that their products were safe and no scientific studies had shown any harmful contents. Both Pepsi and Coke have bottling plants in Palakkad district. The issue erupted when the New Delhi-based CSE said its studies found dangerous levels of pesticide in all the 57 samples of 11 soft drinks brands collected by the organisation from 25 units of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo in 12 states. The study, CSE said, found a cocktail of three-five different pesticides in all the samples - on an average 24 times higher than norms laid down by government-run Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS). "The levels in some samples, for instance, Coca-Cola bought in Kolkata exceeded the BIS standards by 140 times for the deadly pesticide Lindane," said Sunita Narain, director of CSE. Following such findings, states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Kerala said colas could not be sold in schools, colleges and state government departments, while some other states contemplated similar action. The action had caused much resentment in the US, prompting Undersecretary for International Trade Franklin Lavin to shoot a letter to the Indian commerce secretary seeking a level playing field for its cola companies.
Source: IANS
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