Edible or hair oil? Supreme Court settles a 20-year-old debate on coconut oil
Earlier a Supreme Court bench of the then CJI Justice Gogoi and Justice R Banumathi gave a split verdict. Justice Banumathi opined that coconut oil packed in small containers are to be classified as hair oil while Justice Gogoi believed small packages of coconut oil were food.
The current three-judge panel clarified the matter. Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Sanjay Kumar, and Justice R Mahadevan stated that coconut oil meeting food safety standards is edible oil. If it meets cosmetic standards, it's hair oil. The branding will determine the classification.
Justice Kumar wrote the judgment, rejecting the revenue department's argument that all pure coconut oil should be classified as hair oil. “We are of the opinion that pure coconut oil sold in small quantities as 'edible oil' would be classifiable as edible oil.” The revenue department stated this case involves Rs 160 crore in excise duty, penalties, and interest.
The court explained that selling edible coconut oil in small containers doesn't automatically make it hair oil. «The fact that such edible coconut oil was sold in smaller containers would not, by itself, be indicative of it being packaging of a kind fit for use as 'hair oil',» the court said. The size of the container is irrelevant for classification purposes. “Small-sized containers are common to both 'edible oils' and 'hair oils'. Therefore, there must be something more to distinguish between them for classification of such oil, other than size of the packaging,” the bench said. Consumers
