India
Delhi HC: Delhi government’s door-to-door ration delivery is unconstitutional
‘Mukhymantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojna,’ the AAP government’s doorstep ration delivery program, was ruled out by the Delhi high court on Thursday.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Jasmeet Singh said the Delhi government is free to bring another doorstep delivery scheme but it cannot use grains provided by the Centre for this doorstep scheme.
Ration dealers had petitioned the high court to challenge the scheme, and the court granted both of their requests.
The Delhi Sarkari Ration Dealers Sangh and Delhi Ration Dealers Union petitions were reserved by the high court on January 10 after extensive hearings.
According to Delhi’s government, those who were threatened by fair price shop owners if they didn’t opt out of the home delivery mode would not be given food.
An earlier statement from the AAP government stated there was no doubt that fair-price shops would continue to exist after they were implemented.
Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, and Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka, all have the same doorstep delivery system, according to the report’s author.
The Delhi government’s doorstep ration delivery scheme had been opposed by the central government, represented by central government standing counsel Monika Arora, who argued that the state could mitigate the architecture of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) by implementing it.
According to the court’s earlier ruling, no state government should be allowed to interfere with or destroy NFSA’s structure or architecture.
For the purposes of the NFSA, the Centre had explained that it provided food grains to states so that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) could deliver them to fair price shops for distribution to the intended recipients.
Delhi’s high court had on November 15, 2021, ordered the AAP government not to stop or curtail the supply of foodgrains and flours to fair price shops, and the Supreme Court had rejected the Centre’s appeal.
