Gaurav Yadav & Anr. Vs Union of India & Ors. (Delhi High Court)
(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 March, 2020 has not been extended beyond 30th June, 2020 as, in the opinion of the Government, masks and sanitizers are now easily available and there is no need to control such commodities or to regulate supply etc. of these commodities. Thus, a conscious decision has been taken by the respondents not to extend the notification dated 13th March, 2020 (Annexure P-2) beyond 30th June, 2020 as, in the opinion of the Government, based upon the facts, there is no need to control the price of the masks and sanitizers, as per the Office Memorandum dated 1st July, 2020 (Annexure P-5 to the memo of writ petition).
