New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to grant any time to a company to dispose of its existing stock of electrolyte beverages being sold under the name ORSL, which has been banned by the FSSAI to be labelled as Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS).

A bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said the allegation was not that this product is harmful, but it is a case of misbranding and it cannot allow such products to remain in market as the matter relates to public health concern.

“Sorry, we can’t permit it. Please recall it (stock). We will not permit it. We are sorry. The matter relates to public health concern,” the bench told the counsel for petitioner company JNTL Consumer Health India Pvt Ltd. The court said the difficulty is that in rural areas, if some child is suffering from diarrhoea, ordinarily, they buy ORS to balance electrolytes. “In your product, you are also writing electrolytes; there is a possibility of misleading. It is not harmful to someone who is fit to take it but it is harmful to those who are unfit to take it,” it said.

It also said that ORS has brought a revolution to a poor country like ours and the rate of deaths of children has gone down in these areas. Earlier, UNICEF would distribute these for free and it is not whether it is harmful, but it is misbranding, the bench said.

The court issued notice to the Centre and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on the main petition challenging the Authority’s orders dated October 14 and 15, by which it has withdrawn permissions for food-and-beverage companies to use the word ‘ORS’ in their labelling unless they met the standard medical formulation. (PTI)