Lucknow, Nov 19 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh government has banned products with a Halal tag.
Production, storage, distribution and sale of food products with the Halal certification has been forbidden with immediate effect, said the state government in a statement late on Saturday evening.
Products manufactured for export, however, will not be subject to the restrictions.
"Strict legal measures will be implemented against any individual or firm engaged in the production, storage, distribution, buying and selling of Halal-certified medicines, medical devices and cosmetics within Uttar Pradesh," an official order said.
Halal certification of food products is a parallel system which creates confusion regarding the quality of food items and is not tenable under Section 89 of the Food Law Food Safety and Standards Act, the order said.
"The right to decide the quality of food items lies only with the authorities and institutions given in Section 29 of the said Act, who check the relevant standards as per the provisions of the Act," it added.
It said that certain medicines, medical devices and cosmetic products are reported to feature the Halal certificate on their packaging or labelling when there are "no provisions for marking Halal certification on labels in the government rules related to drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics", nor is there any mention of Halal certification in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and its related rules.
The move comes after a police case was filed against a company and a few other organisations for allegedly "exploiting people's religious sentiments" to boost sales by providing "forged" halal certificates.
The case has been registered against entities such as the Halal India Private Limited Chennai, Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Halal Trust Delhi, Halal Council of India Mumbai, Jamiat Ulama Maharashtra and others for allegedly exploiting religious sentiments to boost sales by providing halal certificates to customers of a specific religion, the state government said in a statement.
The complainant raised concerns over a large-scale conspiracy, indicating attempts to allegedly decrease the sale of products from companies lacking the halal certificate, which is illegal, the Uttar Pradesh government said.