New Delhi: The Supreme Court has set aside a Bombay High Court order directing the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to pay Rs 5 lakh compensation to a Pune eatery for the loss caused by its licence suspension order. The case emanates from a FDA inspection conducted at Gurunanak Dairy and Sweets on June 12 following a complaint of alleged food poisoning.

The officers from the FDA's Pune office inspected the eatery and found deficiencies relating to hygiene, record maintenance, labelling and personal hygiene of employees. The establishment's food licence was suspended under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

Gurunanak Dairy and Sweets then moved the high court challenging the suspension of its licence under Food Safety and Standards Act.

The high court had said that it was not convinced by the FDA's submissions and on learning the eatery's loss for a month was Rs 9 lakh, it directed the FDA to pay it Rs 5 lakh as compensation.

The state and FDA moved the top court challenging the HC order.

In the top court, a bench of Justices MM Sundresh and P B Varale quashed the order of compensation after the state government submitted that FDA had acted after a food-poisoning complaint and had collected a sample of 'malai pedha' for analysis.

The state government said the sample was declared unsafe, following which the licence was suspended in the interest of public health. 

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