MUMBAI: Observing that the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act is meant for the benefit of citizens and has a direct nexus to the right to life, the Bombay high court upheld the constitutional validity of the 2006 law, its provisions and the rules framed under it. "This is a social legislation and provides for solution to the problems which would be a creation of nobody else but members of society,'' said an HC bench, dismissing petitions filed by restaurant owners and others, who challenged the Act for being "violative of fundamental rights to equality, trade and life.'' Associations of traders claiming to be in various food businesses, the Indian Hotel & Restaurant Association and the Mumbai Mewa Masala Merchants Association had moved the HC in 2012 to set aside provisions of the Food Safety Act. Without making clear the foundation of the challenge, the traders said the Act had "vague and excessive'' provisions affecting their business and could be prone to abuse. Finding no merit in the challenge, the high court said, "we cannot lose sight of the evil which is sought to be remedied by this Act...Humans have a tendency to deal in food products which would not be safe for human consumption."