The Bombay High Court (HC) on Monday issued instructions to the e-commerce platform, Amazon Retail India, to hand over all expired and perished goods from its Bhiwandi-located warehouse to the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for scientific disposal, officials aware of the development said.

According to officials, the court’s directive came days after it had criticised the state FDA over the ‘drastic’ action it had taken against the Amazon warehouse in Thane district. A bench of the HC, comprising Acting Chief Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad also directed the FDA to file its affidavit by August 27 in response to Amazon’s petition challenging the suspension of the license of its facility located in Bhiwandi.

Amazon to bear disposal costs

As an interim arrangement, the HC ordered Amazon to prepare a complete inventory of all expired and perished goods lying at the warehouse and hand them over to the concerned FDA officer. The officer will then ensure that the goods are disposed of in a scientific manner and in accordance with the law, the court ruled. Furthermore, the bench clarified that the cost of disposing the expired products would have to be borne by the e-commerce platform.

The court issued the directives while hearing Amazon India’s plea challenging the action taken by the Maharashtra FDA against its Bhiwandi warehouse.

FDA alleges expired food originating from warehouse entered market

Notably, the FDA had come down heavily on the facility after alleging that expired food products were being sent from the warehouse into the retail market instead of being destroyed as required. As per the petition filed by Amazon, FDA officials inspected the warehouse on June 24 and then suspended its license the following day without issuing an improvement notice first.

Subsequently, the e-commerce giant filed an appeal before the authority concerned. However, while the appeal was pending, the FDA issued a show-cause notice to the company on July 1, 2026 and later cancelled the warehouse’s license.

The company has challenged the FDA’s action before the Bombay HC.

Court pulled up FDA earlier

The court’s recent directives come just days after it criticised the FDA over the manner in which it had acted against the facility owned by Amazon. On Friday, the court noted that while the agency was implementing its policy vigorously, it appeared to be ‘trying to kill a mosquito with a sword.’ The bench advised the FDA to adopt a more systematic approach while executing enforcement measures.

For the unversed, the Maharashtra FDA has been in the headlines in recent months following a string of raids and inspections at food establishments across the state, including several famous eateries. IAS officer Tukaram Mundhe has been helming the regulatory body since May 2026, during which period, the FDA has revved up action against establishments over violations of food safety.