MUMBAI: Amid a wide crackdown on eateries and food manufacturers by the state Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Bombay High Court earlier this week stayed an order of the administration suspending the license of a dairy in Pune and said that its license was suspended without affording it an opportunity to rectify its alleged defects.The FDA’s order “does not spell out adequate reasons to show that it was imperative in the interest of public health to straightaway suspend the licence and that a lesser measure, in the circumstances of the case, would not serve the purpose,” justice N J Jamadar said in his order passed on Monday.The court was hearing a petition filed by Atharva Milk and Milk Products Industries (AMMPI) which claimed that the FDA had, without carrying out an inspection or preparing an inspection report, suspended its licence on July 7 in an order passed by the assistant commissioner-cum-designated officer. In its petition, AMMPI stated that the FDA had given a “total go-by” to the mandatory compliances under the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006 while acting against it.Arguing for the AMMPI, senior counsel Ashutosh Kumbhakoni and advocate Manoj Badgujar told the court that there was no case for the “drastic action” like the immediate suspension of the licence. Kumbhakoni said that the FDA had “merely reproduced the alleged deficiencies and infirmities, noticed during the course of the purported inspection”.The state government defended the FDA’s action saying that the assistant commissioner had suspended the dairy’s license with “subjective satisfaction that an emergent order of suspension of licence was warranted as there was a risk to food safety.” It also cited a July 10 circular issued by FDA commissioner Tukaram Mundhe.Justice Jamadar said that prima facie, it appeared that the assistant commissioner had recorded that AMMPI had partially complied with a few of the requirements and not complied with the other requirements like design, control of operations, maintenance and sanitation, and training and record keeping.AMMPI had contended that it ran a milk processing unit that processed 25,000 litres of milk daily. Apart from its own 35-40 employees, approximately 2,000 farmers were attached to the unit for their livelihood. In its petition, it contended that under section 32 (3) of the FSS Act, it should have first been issued an improvement notice without which its license could not be suspended.“Prima facie, it appears that the justifiability of the direct action of suspension of the licence, without providing an opportunity to the petitioner to rectify the defects as envisaged…. in Section 32 of the Act, 2006, warrants consideration,” the single-judge bench observed. The court issued notices to the respondents, including the FDA commissioner, asking them to respond by August 10.