ITEM NO.1 COURT NO.5 SECTION
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s).857/2015
SWARAJ ABHIYAN
VERSUS
UNION OF INDIA
(With appln.(s) for interim directions and office report)
Date : 01/12/2016 This petition was called on for hearing today.
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MADAN B. LOKUR
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE N.V. RAMANA
For Petitioner(s)
Mr. Prashant Bhushan, AOR
Mr. Rohit Kr. Singh, Adv.
Mr. Omanakuttan K.K., Adv.
Mr. T. Sudhakar, Adv.
For Respondent(s)
UOI Mr. Mukul Rohatgi, AG
Ms. V. Mohana, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Ajit Sinha, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Rajiv Nanda, Adv.
Ms. Movita, Adv.
Mr. Mukul Singh, Adv.
Mr. Ajay Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR
Ms. Diksha Rai, Adv.
Mr. Ajit Singh, Adv.
Ms. Sunita Sharma, Adv.
Ms. Shikha Kumari, Adv.
Mr. Neeraj Kumar Sharma, AOR
Assam
Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, Adv.
Mr. Sayooj Mohandas M.
A.P.
Mr. Guntur Prabhakar, AOR
Ms. Prerna Singh, Adv.
Bihar
Mr. Gopal Singh, AOR
Mr. Manish Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Shivam Singh, Adv.
Chattisgarh
Mr. Aniruddha P. Mayee, AOR
Mr. A. Selvin Raja, Adv.
Mr. Charudatta Mahindrakar, Adv.
Gujarat
Ms. Hemantika Wahi, AOR
Ms. Puja Singh, Adv.
Ms. Aagam Kaur, Adv.
Haryana
Mr. Tushar Mehta, ASG
Mr. Anil Grover, AAG
Dr. Monika Gusain, AOR
Ms. Noopur Singhal, Adv.
Mr. Sandeep Yadav, Adv.
Mr. Arun Tewatia, Adv.
Jharkhand
Mr. Tapesh Kumar Singh, AOR
Mr. Mohd. Waquas, Adv.
Mr. Aditya Pratap Singh, Adv.
Karnataka
Mr. V. N. Raghupathy, AOR
Mr. Lagnesh Mishra, Adv.
Mr. Parikshit P. Angadi, Adv.
M.P. Mr. C. D. Singh, AOR
Ms. Sakshi Kakkar, Adv.
Maharashtra
Mr. Tushar Mehta, ASG
Mr. Mahaling Pandarge, Adv.
Mr. Nishant R. Katneshwarkar, AOR
Odisha
Mr. Sibo Sankar Mishra, AOR
Rajasthan
Mr. Vijay Hansaria, Sr. Adv.
Mr. S.S. Shamshery, AAG
Mr. Amit Sharma, Adv.
Ms. Anu Dixit Kaushik, Adv.
Mr. Prateek Yadav, Adv.
Mr. Aankit Raj, Adv.
Ms. Ruchi Kohli, Adv.
Mr. Irshad Ahmad, Adv.
Telangana
Mr. S. Udaya Kumar Sagar, AOR
Mr. Baskula Athik, Adv.
U.P.
Mr. Irshad Ahmad, AAG
Mr. Tanmay Agrawal, Adv.
Mr. Vinay Garg, AOR
Mr. Deepam Garg, Adv.
Mr. Upendra Mishra, Adv.
Mr. Varinder Kumar Sharma, AOR
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
It has been pointed out by learned counsel for the petitioner that an application for registration as a political party has been filed by Swaraj India (not by Swaraj Abhiyan) and that is still pending before the Election Commission of India. In view of this, in our opinion, any discussion on whether a public interest petition filed by a political party should be entertained or not appears to be pre-mature as on date.
List the matter on 18th January, 2017 at 10.30 a.m. for submissions in this regard.
It has been pointed out by the learned Attorney General that pursuant to the order dated 28th October, 2016, a meeting was held by the Secretary in the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution on 9th November, 2016. The Minutes of that meeting have been placed before us. It is in paragraph 8 of the Minutes that in terms of the National Food Security Act, 2013 (for short “the Act”), flexibility is provided to the State Governments for designating some existing Commission to act as the State Food Commission. It is further mentioned that many States have opted for this flexibility and the suggestion given by the Secretary is to the effect that the State Governments should frame Rules to be followed by the designated Commission in its role as State Food Commission. In our opinion, while the flexibility is certainly provided by the Act, the constitution of the State Food Commission, whether it is an independent body by itself or whether it is some other Commission functioning as the State Food Commission, must meet the requirements of the statute. In other words, whatever body it is, it must consist of a Chairman, five Members and a Member-Secretary who shall be the officer of the State Government not below the rank of Joint Secretary to that Government and there should at least be two women, whether Chairperson, Member or Member-secretary and one person belonging to the Scheduled Castes and one person belonging to the Scheduled Tribe, whether Chairperson, Member or Member-Secretary and the eligibility criteria mentioned in Section 16 of the Act should also be met. It is not as if some other body can be described as a State Food Commission even though the members of that body do not meet the requirement of Section 16 of the Act. Learned Attorney General informs us that it was not the intention of the meeting held on 9th November, 2016 to bypass Section 16 of the Act. While that may be so, we are of opinion that the State Food Commission should be constituted at the earliest in accordance with Section 16
of the Act rather than to have some other body function as the State Food Commission without having the necessary expertise or the qualification to function as a State Food Commission. It is stated by the learned Attorney General, on instructions, that the entitlement of foodgrains under the Act, even though it is 75% for the rural areas and 50% for the urban areas but if the rural population or the urban population or both exceed that cut-off percentage, the benefit of the Act is not being denied to the eligible persons as long as they are able to prove their identity. Learned Attorney General further states that as far as the Union of India is concerned, it is providing foodgrains as per the State-wise requirement as mentioned in Annexure A to the affidavit dated 26.10.2016. We take this submission on record. It is submitted by Mr. Prashant Bhushan, learned counsel for the petitioner that the State Governments are not lifting the additional allocated foodgrains since it is being supplied at the Minimum Support Price and not at the price mentioned under the Act. We require the State Governments to file an affidavit within two weeks to indicate why they are not lifting the additional allocated foodgrains. Learned Attorney General has handed over the replies to questions posed by the petitioner in their letter dated 22.09.2016. This is taken on record.
(SANJAY KUMAR-I) (JASWINDER KAUR)
AR-CUM-PS COURT MASTER
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