In view of the rampant adulteration of milk being taken place in the country these days the Supreme court has taken a note of this and has asked the government to look into the matter seriously. The Supreme Court on Friday said that offenders found guilty of adulterating milk with harmful chemicals should spend their life behind bars and directed the central government to raise the penalty to deal with the menace adding that the present six-month imprisonment "was" hardly a deterrent". "Since in India traditionally infants/children are fed milk, adulteration of milk and its products is a concern and stringent measures need to be taken to combat it. The consumption of adulterated milk and adulterated milk products is hazardous to human health," said the apex court. "As observed by this court earlier, it will be in order if the central government considers making suitable amendments in the penal provisions at par with the provisions contained in the State amendments to the Indian Penal Code.

It is also desirable that Union of India revisits the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 to revise the punishment for adulteration making it more deterrent in cases where the adulterant can have an adverse impact on health," said the three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur, which was acting on a petition filed by religious guru, Swami Achyutanand Tirth of Haridwar, four years ago. The court had earlier also pointed out this issue and said, "The poisoning in the body is gradual and once it happens people think they are afflicted with cancer and nobody blames milk. Are you waiting for them to add cyanide in milk? Only then instant death will be caused for you to take action," the court had said.