Kochi, India, Sept 11 - Lawyers for the Indian units of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo told a court on Monday that a regional ban on their beverages was unconstitutional, but a provincial government defended it saying the drinks were unsafe.
The Communist rulers of the southern state of Kerala banned the production and sale of drinks made locally by the two global giants last month after an environment group said their products contained dangerous levels of pesticides.
The two firms have petitioned the court to lift the ban.
"The state government is not vested with the powers to order the ban, which appears fully preconceived and predetermined," Coca-Cola's counsel Janak Dwarkadas told the Kerala state high court in the port city of Kochi.
Lawyers of the cola firms questioned the criteria adopted by the environment group in declaring their drinks unsafe and said the Kerala government made no effort to verify the report or notify the companies before imposing the ban.
But counsel for the Kerala government, Sudhakar Prasad, said the administration had acted within its rights in the interests of public health.
"The government moved to ban the cola drinks because they are injurious to health and it has statutory powers to do so," he told the court.
The arguments remained inconclusive on Monday and the court said it would resume hearing the case on Tuesday.
Six other states imposed partial bans on Coca-Cola and Pepsi products by prohibiting sales at or near schools, colleges and hospitals.
The two firms have said their products were safe.
They have rejected the findings of the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) that said tests conducted by it on samples of the drinks across the country found high levels of pesticide traces in them.
Although annual sales of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo products in India, at nearly $1.29 billion, accounts for a tiny portion of their global business, the CSE report and the regional bans have hurt their high profile images.
One industry source said sales across the country fell 10 percent after the controversy started last month.
While industry lobby groups have been worried that the ban could damage foreign investment in India, some food scientists have said the row had overshadowed the larger issue of high pesticide content in most Indian foods and drinks.
Last month, a government-appointed expert panel said CSE had failed to prove its claims and there were inconsistencies in its chemical analysis.
But the group has rejected the expert panel report saying the government was pandering to global business interests.