Khadi body threatens Fabindia with legal action

New Delhi: The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has threatened legal action against ethnic retailer Fabindia for allegedly selling its ready-made cotton garments as Khadi products without getting proper approvals. KVIC has sent a legal notice to Fabindia Overseas, which said the retailer was continuing to sell its garments in the name and style of Khadi despite earlier warnings by KVIC and assurances by Fabindia that it will not do so.
“It is an illegal act and, in other words, amounts to indulging in unfair trade practice,” the notice said.
Viney Singh, CEO of Fabindia, said, “We are in receipt of the notice and have responded to KVIC, requesting a meeting with the designated authorities to understand the issues that have been raised, and to resolve them.”
KVIC is an autonomous body under the Union ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises. Its notice to Fabindia in 2015 had asked Fabindia to stop advertisement and sale of products in the name of Khadi. Subsequently, Fabindia had communicated to KVIC that it has stopped advertisement campaigns and gave internal directions to stop selling the cloth with reference to Khadi.KVIC alleged Fabindia is selling ready-made garments from its outlets under the name of “Khadi” and has also put up prominent Khadi display panels at its sales outlets. The legal notice said close scrutiny of garments sold by FabIndia and their price tags showed, while the labels stitched on the garments mentioned them as “Fabindia Cotton”, the price tags, which were removable, had the word “Khadi”. “KVIC is very keen to protect its reputation and would take stringent measures against those who violated rules and regulations that have been framed for the benefit of rural artisans attached to it,” said V K Saxena, chairman of KVIC.
KVIC said it held discussions with representatives of FabIndia on the details of procedural requirements for issuing Khadi mark certificate. However, as FabIndia did not adhere to the procedural requirements, KVIC denied the certificate.