2020 (8) TMI 376

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....is allowed. However, the applicant is directed to file the requisite Court fee within a period of 72 hours from the date of resumption of regular functioning of the Court. The application is disposed of. W.P.(C) No.5222/2020 1. This public interest litigation has been preferred with the following prayers:- "a. An appropriate writ in the nature of Mandamus or any other appropriate Writ, Order, directions of like nature directing the Respondent No.1 to extend the Notifications dated 12/03/2020 and 21/03/2020 thereby classifying masks and sanitizers as 'Essential Commodity' under the Essential Commodity Act, 1955 and fixing the retail prices of the said products. b. An appropriate writ in the nature of Mandamus or any other appropriate ....

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....ability and price of these commodities. 4. Having regard to the aforesaid, none of the prayers can be granted by this Court mainly for the following reasons:- (a) What items are to be included under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 as 'Essential Commodity', is a policy decision of the respondent/Government and, therefore, unless the decision can be shown to be manifestly unreasonable or arbitrary, this Court will be extremely slow in interfering with the policy decision of the Government. (b) Inclusion of commodities in the list of 'Essential Commodities' under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 is a complex decision based upon varieties of factors such as availability, price etc. Moreover, the aforesaid notification dated 13th Mar....

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....gulation in place was about the price of the aforesaid two commodities as is clear from the notification dated 21st March, 2020 (Gazette Notification dated 24th March, 2020 - annexed at page-51 of the writ petition). Thus, there was no further restriction at all except regarding the price of the said two commodities in the notification dated 21st March, 2020. The contentions about regulation of quality of these products, as sought to be raised in the petition, are therefore not relevant to the relief sought. 5. In view of the above, we see no reason to issue mandamus and direct the respondents to extend the notification dated 13th March, 2020 or to include the masks and sanitizers as 'Essential Commodities' under the Essential Commodities ....