The Madras High Court on Tuesday granted an interim injunction restraining the State authorities from collecting milk and milk product samples of two private dairy companies, Hatsun Agro Products Limited and Vijay Dairy & Farm Products (P) Ltd, for testing their quality in laboratories.
Hearing writ petitions filed by the firms, Justice M. Duraiswamy restrained the authorities concerned from interfering with the business of procurement, sale of milk, milk products and drawing of samples for testing.
State Minister for Dairy Development K.T. Rajenthra Bhalaji had on May last triggered a row by claiming that milk supplied by some private dairy companies were adulterated and consuming it could lead to cancer. Subsequently, he alleged that laboratory tests had revealed that the milk samples of three companies contained formaldehyde.
On a petition from the private dairy manufacturers, the Madras High Court had on July 10 barred the Minister from making any remarks onthe quality of their milk.
In this backdrop, the petitioner-companies questioned the authority of the State officials in collecting samples by stopping their trucks transporting milk.
The petitioners had contended that the Commissioner of Dairy Development had no authority to draw samples of their products and no law permitted the State authorities to do so.
Upon hearing the arguments, the judge restrained the State authorities from collecting milk samples for testing until further orders.