Delhi HC refuses relief to PepsiCo over energy drink label
The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to immediately interfere with an order denying PepsiCo permission to continue manufacturing products with the “energy drink” label.
Dealing with an appeal filed by PepsiCo against an October 6 order of a single-judge bench, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Justice Sanjay Sharma noted the absence of “specific reasons” in the order and asked the single judge to record the same within a week to enable it to deal with the issue.
PepsiCo’s senior counsel argued that despite protecting the company from coercive action over the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) directive to drop the descriptor “energy drink” from its beverages and allowing it to sell its existing stock, “Sting Energy” and “Adrenaline Rush”, the single judge refused to allow further manufacturing with the label.
He submitted that a similar relief was granted to another beverage in a separate case.
The division bench said it is not inclined to go into the merits of the matter at this stage, especially when the appellant’s plea on the issue of conformation of interim relief is still pending consideration before the single-judge bench.
“What is in operation is an ad-interim relief in the matter,” the court said, as it remanded the matter to the single-judge bench for the recording of reasons.
“We are prima facie of the view that the single judge has not recorded any specific reasons for not permitting the petitioner in the matter of manufacturing with the label ‘energy drink’, which otherwise was permissible in (the Red Bull case),” it stated.
“We deem it appropriate to relegate the matter to the single judge with a direction that for observations in paragraph 13 of the order dated 6.10.2026, let there be reasons recorded so as to enable this court to deal with the issue. Let the aforesaid exercise be done by the single judge in one week from today,” the bench ordered.
The counsel appearing in the court for the FSSAI opposed the appeal, stating that it is not maintainable.
On October 6, the single-judge bench ordered no coercive action against PepsiCo after the FSSAI directed it to drop the “energy drink” descriptor from its beverages.
Allowing the company to sell its existing stock of beverages labelled as “energy drink”, the court made it clear that it cannot manufacture any more products bearing the descriptor.
PepsiCo had approached the single-judge bench challenging orders passed by the FSSAI directing it to drop the “energy drink” label. The FSSAI had also asked food safety officers across the country to seize the products.
