The High Court on Thursday decided not to hear a ruling it had issued suo moto asking the government to ban the production and marketing of 14 pasteurised milk brands found contaminated by antibiotics and heavy metals. The special bench of Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir also dropped the matter from the list of the cases for hearing.
The bench came up with the refusal after the Appellate Division on July 29, 2019 stayed its directive to ban the 14 brands following an appeal filed by the state-run Bangladesh Milk Producers’ Co-Operative Union Limited, Milk Vita. All the 14 brands of milk have been available on the market for sale because of the stay on HC ban.
On July 28, 2019, the bench in a suo moto rule had directed the owners of all the 14 authorised pasteurised milk companies to refrain from producing, distributing and selling their milk, found contaminated and adulterated with banned antibiotics and heavy metals for five weeks.
The bench had also directed the owners of the companies to explain within five weeks why contaminating and adultering pasteurised milk with antibiotics and heavy metals would not be declared as ‘illegal’ and a violation of citizens’ fundamental rights as enshrined in Articles 15, 18 and 31of the Constitution.
The owners of the companies were also asked to explain why they would not be directed immediately to rectify their products individually or collectively. The products include the Milk Vita brand of the state-run Bangladesh Milk Producers’ Co-Operative Union Limited, Pran Milk of Pran Dairy Limited, Aarong of the BRAC dairy and food project, Farm Fresh of Akij Food and Beverage Limited, Igloo of Igloo Dairy Limited, the Aftab brand of Aftab Milk and Milk Product Limited, Milk Fresh of Uttar Banga Dairy, Dairy Fresh of Baro Awlia Dairy Milk and Foods Limited, MOO of American Dairy Limited, Ayran of Danish Dairy Limited, Pura of Ichamoti Dairy and Food Products, Ultra of Shelaidah Dairy, Safe of Tania Dairy and Food Products and Arwa of Purbo Bangla Dairy Food Industries.
The bench issued the directives after accepting separate lab reports from the Institute of Public Health, the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission which detected the presence of antibiotics and heavy metal (lead) in the samples of milk of the companies.
It also expressed serious concern over the test reports prepared in compliance with its directive issued on July 14 while hearing a public interest litigation writ petition filed by lawyer Tanvir Ahmed in 2018. The bench had set August 25 for the next hearing on the issue but the hearing did not take place as the bench’s jurisdiction over the hearing was changed on August 18.
The bench, led by Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, was then assigned to hear and dispose of only appeals and writ petitions relating to only civil suits, like salish, tax and custom matters instead of hearing all kinds of writ motions. Supreme Court lawyer Tanvir Ahmed, who had assisted the court during the suo moto rule hearing, told the media that the matter would be moved to another bench for hearing. He said that the court dropped his PIL writ petition from the list of cases.
The bench had issued the suo moto rule during the hearing of a public interest litigation writ petition challenging the legality of marketing and selling adulterated pasteurised milk, he added. On July 16, 2019, another bench, of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Chowdhury and Justice KM Hafizul Alam, while hearing another suo moto rule on the same issue, banned administering antibiotics to cows without a veterinary physician’s prescription after the IPH found antibiotics in the pasteurised milk samples of 31 dairy firms.
