The Bombay High Court (HC) on Monday directed the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to pay Rs 5 lakh compensation to a Pune-based sweets shop for keeping its licence suspended despite a 98 per cent compliance report, noting that the regulator’s intention was laudable but it was “going overboard”, news agency PTI reported.

A bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad described the FDA’s policy of suspending licences of eateries and hotels as “strange” and “perverse”.