Supreme Court: Ban on Non-Iodised Salt Unconstitutional

The Supreme Court of India held in its recent judgment that the prohibition imposed by the centre on non-iodised salt for human consumption is unconstitutional. The court however said that the ban will continue for six months.

 A bench of Supreme Court including Justice B Sudershan Reddy (since retired) and Justice Raveendran held that Rule 44-I of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules, 1955, was unconstitutional. The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act was intended to ban the use of adulterated and misbranded products. Therefore, this rule could not be invoked to ban sale of non-iodised salt. The court stated that if the government wanted to ban non-iodised salt it should have come out with different legislation.

The Supreme Court gave the above ruling in response to the writ petition filed by the Academy of Nutrition Improvement challenging the ban on non-iodised salt.

The government had made the consumption of only iodised salt mandatory on the basis that deficiency of iodine caused a lot of disorders like dwarfism, squint eye, lower IQ and mental retardation.