[Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder] Bombay HC permits Manufacturing But Disallows Sale; Directs For Samples' Re-Testing

A division bench comprising Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice SG Digeof the Bombay High Court has allowed Johnson and Johnson to manufacture the baby powder at their Mulund Factory for which their license was canceled. The bench also directed re-testing of the samples of the baby powder.

Government Pleader Milind More submitted a list of laboratories to the court for the re-testing of the samples. The court then asked the parties to select 3 laboratories for inspection since the court did not want to send the sample to only one lab and have a margin of error.

The samples will be sent to Central Drug Testing Laboratory, Western Zone, FDA laboratory at Bandra-Kurla Complex, Maharashtra, and Intratek Laboratory.

The Court also directed the FDA that the sample will be collected in the presence of the representative of the petitioner.

The writ petition was filed challenging the state government’s decision to cancel the company’s license which will be effective from 15th December, to disallow the sale of baby powder in its Mulund factory.

The petitioner pleaded that the Joint Commissioner and the FDA had issued an order on 15th September to revoke the company’s license after which the commissioner, within five days, directed to dismiss the manufacturing and selling of the baby powder, with immediate effect, basis the ground of non-conformity to statutory requirements.

The petitioner also submitted that an appeal was filed before the Minister of FDA on October 19th, which was rejected. The petitioner further added that the dismissal of the manufacturing unit at Mulund caused a huge financial loss to the company.

Aggrieved by this, the petitioner in furtherance to the same, filed a writ petition in the High Court since the said orders were passed without abiding by the principles of natural justice.