New Delhi, Aug 27: The Delhi High Court today dismissed a petition seeking ban on sale of softdrinks on the basis of a report by Centre for Science and Environment (CES) that colas in India contained high level of pesticides. A bench comprising Chief Justice B C Patel and Justice a K Sikri dismissed the petition after Additional Solicitor General K K Sud informed that the issue has been referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) and the court has been ceased of the matter. The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking the ban on sale of softdrinks on the basis of the NGO's report was filed by a society, Bharatiya Dalit Soshit Samaj. Following the submission by ASG, the bench said it was not inclined to entertain the petition and dismissed it.

A single bench on august 11 had directed the government to conduct laboratory tests on the samples of Pepsi's product after the softdrink major had approached the court seeking independent test at some accredited laboratory.
Recently, even after receiving the report from its laboratory, government agreed for referring the matter to JPC following opposition's demand that the issue concerns public health and thorough probe needs to be done.

Bureau Report