Centre directs Karnataka government to cancel licenses for commercialisation of breast milk: HC told

Bengaluru: The Union government on Wednesday informed the Karnataka High Court that it had directed the State government to revoke licenses granted to private companies allowing them to collect, process, and commercialise human breast milk.

The High Court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a person named Munegowda, who raised concerns about multinational corporations profiting from the collection and sale of breast milk.

During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General of India for High Court of Karnataka Arvind Kamath told a bench of Chief Justice N V Anjaria and Justice K V Aravind that the Union Ministry of Ayush had recently instructed the Karnataka government to take action against such licenses. Following these directions, several licenses issued to private firms were rescinded by the State government.

Kamath stated: "The central government has mandated the State to cancel all such licenses. Some companies had initially received these licenses under Ayurvedic norms, which permitted the commercial use of human breast milk. However, the Centre has now intervened, and the State has complied by canceling some of these licenses. At least one company has already had its license revoked, and it has since challenged this cancellation in the High Court."

Advocate B Visveswaraiah, representing the petitioner, presented a 50 ML bottle of packaged breast milk and a 10-gram packet of powdered breast milk, highlighting their sale prices of Rs 1,239 and Rs 313, respectively.

Kamath noted that these licenses were previously issued under provisions related to Ayurvedic and naturopathy practices but reiterated that the central government's recent directive requires their cancellation. He also requested that the court include the Union Ministry of Ayush as a respondent in the ongoing PIL.

The High Court directed the petitioner to implead the Union Ministry in the case and issued a notice. The matter is scheduled for further hearing on December 4.