The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has threatened to take legal action against Fabindia for unauthorised selling of its readymade cotton garments as khadi products.
In a strongly worded legal notice to Fabindia Chief Executive Officer, Viney Singh, KVIC's Director [legal Affairs], has noted that the organisation was continuing to sell its garments as khadi despite earlier warnings by the KVIC.
"The Fabindia is doing it despite assurances that it will not do so. It is an illegal act and amounts to unfair trade practice." the notice says.
As per Khadi Mark Regulations, 2003 notified by the Union Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, no textile shall be sold or otherwise traded by any person or certified Khadi institution as ‘Khadi’ or ‘Khadi products’ in any form or manner without it bearing a ‘Khadi Mark’ tag or label issued by a Committee under the Regulation. The regulation, among other things, enforces certain obligations on every person or certified Khadi institutions engaged in the business of sale of products as Khadi or Khadi products.
The legal notice has pointed out that the KVIC had drawn the attention of FabIndia to this aspect in August 2015 itself, when the company issued some advertisements for selling/ trading of fabric in the name of Khadi. In a letter dated August 13, 2015, it asked Fabindia to stop further advertisement and sale of khadi products .
In October 2015, FabIndia informed the KVIC that they had stopped advertisement campaign in all media and also stopped selling khadi products.
Consequently, the KVIC held discussions with representatives of FabIndia for issuing Khadi mark certificate. But, as FabIndia did not adhere to the procedural formalities/ requirements of Khadi mark certificate, the KVIC denied the certificate. This was conveyed in a letter dated September 29, 2016.
However, despite the written assurances, FabIndia is selling garments from its outlets under the name of ‘khadi’ and has also put up prominent Khadi display panels at their sales outlets. The legal notice noted that the garments sold by FabIndia and their price tag showed that while the labels stitched on the garments mentioned them as ‘FabIndia Cotton’ the price tag had the word ‘khadi’.
The KVIC Chairman, VK Saxena, said they were keen to protect khadi's reputation and would take stringent measures against those who violated rules and regulations that have been framed for the benefit of rural artisans attached to the production of khadi.