Maharashtra: Bombay HC allows Johnson & Johnson to manufacture, sell baby powder

A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and S G Dige said the state government’s order was stringent, unreasonable and unfair, the report said.

The bench also reprimanded the state Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a lackadaisical attitude in conducting the tests on a sample of the product seized in 2018.

It said that while ensuring quality and safety was extremely important in the case of cosmetic products, it seemed unreasonable to shut down the entire manufacturing process when there is a slight deviation in one of the products.

The court observed that such an approach would result in considerable amount of "commercial chaos and wastefulness".

The orders of suspension and revoking of the licence were passed on the basis of a lab report which found the powder had a higher pH level than prescribed.

The company approached the court challenging three orders passed by the state government—one dated September 15, 2022 revoking the license, the second dated September 20, 2022 ordering it to immediately halt the manufacturing and sale of the baby powder product, and the third passed on October 15, 2022 by the state minister concerned upholding the earlier two orders.