KARACHI: A consumer court has imposed fines on a superstore and two bread production factories for selling bread without mentioning the manufacturing and expiry dates on the products.

The presiding officer of the consumer protection court (east), Javed Ali Korejo, passed the judgement while disposing of a complaint against a superstore and two bread production units.

The complainant, Aurangzeb, filed a complaint for selling bread and other products without mentioning their manufacturing and expiry dates.

The judge ruled that the defendant superstore issued a defective receipt to the complainant by violating provisions of Section 19 of the Sindh Consumer Protection Act, 2014.

The court punished its manager by imposing a fine of Rs15,000 with the direction to pay the amount within 30 days with the court’s Nazir in government treasury account.

The court further ruled that the defendant bread production units also infringed the liability under the provisions of Sections 4(2) and 11(1) of the SCP Act, 2014, as they sold defective product.

The court punished their owners/director/representative of both the units by imposing a fine of Rs25,000 on one and Rs50,000 on the other with the direction to pay the amount within 30 days.

The judge noted that one defendant was doing its business without obtaining Standard Quality Certificate and Food Business Licence. Therefore, ordered the defendant to apply within 10 days “without fail” for the registration and to obtain a valid food business licence from the Sindh Food Authority as well as the Standard Quality Certificate from the Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority.

In case of failure to comply with these directives, the court strictly directed the food safety officer to seal the business place of one of the defendants until the court’s order was complied with. The food safety officer was directed to submit a report to the court in that regard.

The court further ordered both the bread production units to ensure that the dates of manufacturing and expiry and batch number were mentioned on wrappers of the bread in compliance with Section 19 of the SCP Act, 2014. The wrappers must be sealed by the company, it added.

The judge warned that in case of non-compliance with such directive, the defendant would be punished with an imprisonment for a period not less than one month — which may extend to three years — or a fine of not less than Rs50,000 or with both punishments.

The judge directed the office to send a copy of the order to the director-general of the Sindh food authority for compliance and fixed the matter on July 5 for execution proceedings.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2019