LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) struck down a restriction imposed by the Punjab food department of releasing wheat to the petitioner flour mills having valid licenses and allowed release of wheat to them from public stock.

The petitioners, Rana Abdul Basit and others owners of the mills, had challenged a notification issued by the secretary food denying release of wheat to the mills for being newly established.

Earlier, the petitioners’ counsel contended that the mills applied for the release of wheat from public stock to the food department and due inspections were carried out with respect to the verification of installed machinery and grinding capacity of the mills.

The counsel contended that the restriction was beyond the powers conferred under section 3 of the Punjab Foodstuffs (Control) Act, 1958 and also in violation of articles 8, 18 & 25 of the Constitution.

A law officer argued that the food department had vested right to formulate policies and regulate the release of wheat from public stock in larger public interest. He stated that the petitioners’ mills were not barred from grinding the wheat after procuring the same from the private sector and would become eligible for release of wheat from the public stock after the next harvest season.

The law officer also argued that the restriction allowed the department to distribute the wheat quotas allocated to existing flour mills smoothly and if every new entrant was extended benefit of the policy then it would hinder a smooth and uninterrupted supply of wheat to the existing mills.

The court; however, said the only justification of imposing the impugned restriction appears to be the convenience of the department so that it may not have to frequently redistribute wheat quotas amongst the eligible flour mills.

By doing so, the department has created two distinct classes of flour mills in terms of existing flour mills and newly established flour mills, the court added.

The court observed, it is manifestly clear that newly established flour mills as a class have been discriminated vis-à-vis the existing flour mills without any rational or intelligible criteria.

The court held that the impugned restriction prohibiting the supply of wheat to newly functional mills having valid licenses is unreasonable and arbitrary. “It does not withstand the test of structured discretion and therefore, in order to correct the legality in procedural impropriety, in exercise of judicial review, clause VII of the notification in question is struck down and is declared as unconstitutional and unlawful,” the court concluded.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022