Gauhati High Court has directed the central government to “frame appropriate rules” for regulating the easy availability of calcium carbide, used as an artificial fruit ripener, in the open market.

A division bench of Justices Achintya Malla Bujorbarua and Nelson Sailo passed the order acting on a PIL filed by advocate Bhaskar Baruah in 2018 articulating concerns about artificial ripening of fruits such as banana, papaya and mango by using calcium carbide, a “highly toxic and highly inflammable” chemical substance.

The court said: “...We require the authorities in the central government to frame appropriate rules for regulating the open availability of calcium carbide in the market and for the purpose, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and the ministry of petroleum and natural gas may coordinate amongst themselves for… framing the required rules.”

The court also directed the Assam government to “monitor the activities” of senior food safety officers for compliance of its directions to check the artificial ripening of fruits.

Baruah had contended in his PIL that such artificially ripened fruits were being sold illegally not only in the markets of Guwahati but also across the state by adopting unfair practices, posing chronic health hazards like abdominal problem, skin diseases and cancer.

Calcium carbide is used as a ripener in many other parts of the country too.

The method of artificially ripening fruits had reached a “menacing proportion” and that it was now “difficult” to find fruits in the market that were not ripened artificially, the petitioner said.

The court was of the view that a “more meaningful interpretation and implementation of the provisions” of the Food and Safety Standards Act, 2016, and the Calcium Carbide Rules, 1987, would be a “requirement” for effecting a “total eradication of the illegitimate procedure” adopted for the ripening of fruits using calcium carbide. It said guidelines were also needed to complement the efforts.

The court order took note of certain studies by Baruah on the availability of the chemical in Assam. The study revealed that recognised and licenced industrial houses, which manufacture acetylene gas, may use calcium carbide in a regulated manner. However, calcium carbide was “abundantly available” in the open market and “any person” could procure it at any time because of the prolific use of the chemical in an unregulated manner in motor garages and workshops to generate acetylene gas.

Calcium carbide is mainly used for producing acetylene and calcium cyanamide.

The court also requested Baruah to be “alert” to whether its directions had been “suitably” followed by the respondents. “In the event of any adverse situation being noticed, the PIL petitioner may bring it to the notice of the court by filing appropriate application,” the order said.

Baruah told The Telegraph that his “prayer has been answered” and he was hoping that both the central and the state government would implement the order in the “greater interest” of public health.