In a major blow to Coca-Cola and Pepsi, India's Supreme Court has ordered the government to investigate whether the soft drinks sold in the country are laced with 'chemical addictives' to hook consumers.
Tuesday's landmark ruling came during the hearing of a case filed by a non-governmental group, Centre for Public Interest Litigation, fighting for food safety.
The group urged the court's intervention for setting up an expert technical committee to evaluate the harmful effects of soft drinks on human health, particularly children.
Its petition also charged Coca-Cola and PepsiCo with peppering their products with chemical addictives and demanded a regulatory regime to curb the practice.
After hearing lawyers for the petitioners and the soft-drinks giants, the judges ordered the federal government to institute a thorough examination of bottles and cans for what the group described as addictive ingredients.
Significantly, the two firms are already locked in several high-profile legal cases in the country.