HC upholds Govt’s PDS control order, dismisses dealers’ pleas

Srinagar, Oct 30: The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on Thursday upheld the Jammu and Kashmir Targeted Public Distribution System Control Order, 2023, noting that it was aimed at ensuring the proper supply of essential commodities to the people.

In their pleas, the aggrieved fair price shop dealers had assailed the order issued vide SO 41.

The dealers had questioned the order on a number of grounds. After hearing the petitioners through their counsel and the government through deputy advocate general Hakim Aman Ali, a division bench of Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal dismissed the petitions, observing that if achieving the primary objective incidentally results in the generation of employment opportunities, the petitioners could not invoke employment concerns to defeat the main purpose of S O 41.

The bench agreed with the government’s contention that the SO 41 is, in fact, an action on the part of the authorities in fulfilling the object of Article 47 of the Constitution of India. “Article 47 is the guiding lamp showing a way to the government to tread upon, to achieve the goals of raising the level of nutritional security and improving public health,” it said.

“The SO 41 has been issued by the respondents in public interest and when the public interest competes against the individual rights of some citizens (petitioners in the present case) and when the complaint is made by them in respect of the violation of the doctrines of ‘legitimate expectation’ and ‘promissory estoppel’, then the interest of public at large steal a march on individual interest of the few citizens,” the court said.

The court observed that the petitioners could not raise the plea of doctrines of “legitimate expectation” and “promissory estoppel” to assail SO 41, saying the challenge thrown on these grounds was “misconceived.”

The petitioners had sought the quashing of S O 41, dated January 19, 2023, contending that it adversely affected their business.

They had also challenged the imposition of a renewal fee of Rs 1000 every five years, as well as the restriction prescribing the maximum age of a fair price shop dealer as 65 years.

In response to the contention that in earlier government orders, no age limit was prescribed but in SO 41, the license can be renewed till the fair price shop dealer attains the age of 65 years, the court said, “Under normal circumstances, when a person reaches 65 years of age, it becomes little difficult to perform activities that require much physical labour. A government employee also retires at the age of 60 years.”

With regard to the contention that a financial burden has been placed upon the petitioners by imposing of renewal fee of Rs 1000, the court said the purpose of renewal was to ensure that the licensee performs satisfactorily, meaning thereby that he adheres to the guidelines framed by the Government to provide a smooth supply of food grains to the ration card holders.

“A renewal fee of Rs 1000 payable after five years in J&K cannot be termed as excessive, thereby overburdening the petitioners financially,” the court said.

The petitioners, while banking upon the order dated 127-FCS&CA of 2016 dated August 4, 2016, to assail SO 41, had also contended that it has the propensity to reduce the ration tickets to 1500 souls or 200 families in rural areas and not more than 2000 souls or less than 300 families in urban areas.

In terms of order No 127-FCS&CA of 2016, they had contended that the minimum ration tickets were fixed as 250 with an upper limit of 499 ration tickets.

The court observed that the petitioners could not throw a challenge to Clause 20 (2) of SO41 on the ground of violation of their contractual or fundamental rights, as they have only been issued licenses to ensure proper and smooth distribution of food grains among the public, and there are no vested rights with them for a particular number of ration cards.