High Court refuses to interfere on plea over fuel price

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to interfere in a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking the sale of petrol and diesel at reasonable prices instead of letting oil companies increase the rates exorbitantly.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V. Kameswar Rao said they cannot issue any direction to the Central Government to fix a “fair price” of petrol and diesel as it is a policy matter which involved “larger economic issues”.

However, the court asked the government to consider an earlier representation pending before it on price rise of petrol and diesel and listed the matter for further hearing on November 16.

The court was hearing a plea filed by Delhi-based designer Pooja Mahajan through her advocate A. Maitri.

Mahajan had filed a similar plea in July but the High Court had then directed the Centre to treat the PIL as a representation.

The petitioner has sought a directive to the Central government to fix a “fair price” of petrol and diesel in line with the Essential Commodities Act.

“Instead of fixing a fair price, the government has delegated the powers to Oil Manufacturing Companies (OMC) and this kind of procedure being followed by the government is unconstitutional, illegal and contrary to the mandate of the Section 3(1) of the Essential Commodities Act,” the plea read. The petitioner also alleged that the oil companies had stopped increasing the prices when the Karnataka election campaign was going on. (IANS)