Suffer For Sometime Like You Made Customers Suffer By Serving 'Analogue Paneer': Bombay High Court Denies Interim Relief To Eatery

While refusing to grant interim relief to a Thane-based Udupi restaurant, whose licence has been suspended by the Food & Drugs Administration (FDA) for serving the recently banned 'analogue paneer', the Bombay High Court on Friday (August 21) said such hotels must tell the customers by putting up boards that they are not serving what is being shown in the menu card. 

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad asked the hotel to 'suffer' for sometime as it has made customers suffer by serving them analogue paneer instead of what they actually ordered - a dairy paneer. 

Additional Government Pleader Priyabhushan Kakade representing the FDA told the judges that the paneer samples tested from the restaurant in Thane's Wagle Estate, showed that it was not original paneer made of dairy products but it was an analogue paneer. He highlighted that oil mixed with chemicals are used to make such duplicate paneer which is already banned across Maharashtra for a period of one year.

Irked to note this, the bench pulled up the restaurant, observing, "Just for little price difference, you do this?"

On Kakade submitting that the restaurant has an alternate remedy to appeal the licence suspension order before the FDA Commissioner, the counsel for the eatery informed the judges that the ban on use of analogue paneer was notified on August 1 and the same was found in their hotel in the month of June.

However, the bench did not seemed to be impressed with the contention. 

"But you are still making people eat something by making them believe it is paneer. You are making people eat something rotten. Why don't you advertise on your sign board that you sell analog paneer, no original food is sold here... People should know what they are being served... People read ingredients and think it tastes good and then they realise it's not original.... So now you too suffer for sometime as you made people suffer by eating this then you also suffer. No interim relief. If you make people eat this without indicating…You should be penalised," a visibly enraged ACJ Ghuge remarked. 

The bench therefore issued notice to the FDA and asked Kakade to file a detailed reply to the instant petition by September 2. The matter has been kept for further consideration on September 7.

Case Title: Udupi Swaad Restaurant vs Maharashtra FDA [Writ Petition (Lodging No) 29022 of 2026]