Karnataka - Bangalore   

Centre appeals against arecanut order

BANGALORE: The Union Government on Friday filed an appeal in the Karnataka High Court against a single judge order on the arecanut.

A single judge had on July 4, 2007, struck down an amendment to Rule 42 of the Food Adulteration Rules 1955 whereby it had been made mandatory for manufacturers to insert the warning “Chewing supari is injurious to health” in packages containing gutka and arecanut.

The single judge had passed the order on petitions by Malnad Areca Marketing Cooperative Society, B.L. Shankar of Chikmagalur, Araga Jnanendra, G.D. Narayanappa, MLAs and others.

The petitioners challenged the amendment and said that the warning was irrational and arbitrary. The Union has filed an appeal against this order. In their appeal, the Union quoted the Indian Council of Medical Research saying that “several studies have shown that arecanut has mutagenic properties, which means that chances of it being carcinogenic is high”.

It said even the International Agency for Research on Cancer, based at Lyon in France, had in 2003 labelled arecanut as carcinogenic. The Union has sought for the order to be set aside.

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