Supreme Court directs 'status quo' in 'Duare Ration' scheme

 SC's order comes as a relief — though temporary — for Mamata Banerjee government

Supreme Court.: File picture

TT Legal Correspondent   |   New Delhi   |  29.11.22 : The Supreme Court  on Monday directed “status quo” in the Bengal government’s proposed “Duare Ration (ration on doorsteps)” scheme which Calcutta High Court had on September 28 declared “null and void”.

Status quo, which is a Latin expression, refers to an order passed by a court directing the parties to a dispute to maintain or preserve the existing state of affairs.

The order from the country’s apex court comes as a relief — though temporary — for the Mamata Banerjee government as the scheme was a pre-poll promise of the chief minister and the government began its phased rollout across the state in September. 

The legal challenge to the scheme by a section of ration dealers, which was upheld by the high court, cast a shadow on the continuation of the scheme.

A source in the state government said the Nabanna top brass had convened a meeting on Tuesday to discuss how the scheme, which had to be stopped following the high court order, could be relaunched without any delay as the Supreme Court had ordered “status quo”.   

A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice M.M.Sundresh said it was ordering “status quo” to ensure that there was no inconvenience to the common people, but agreed to examine the larger issue involved in the matter.

Senior advocates — Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi — appeared for the Bengal government at Monday’s hearing. 

While hearing the case, the bench also referred to a similar policy adopted by the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi under the “Mukhyamantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana” which was struck down by the Delhi High Court in May.

The AAP government scheme was struck down by the high court on the ground that it couldn’t utilise the grain supplied by the Centre for doorstep delivery and had upheld the petitions filed by two ration dealers’ organisations challenging the scheme.

On September 28, a division bench of Calcutta High Court had set aside the scheme, dealing a major blow to the Mamata government. 

The division bench of  Justice Chitta Ranjan Dash and Justice Aniruddha Roy had observed: “The Duare RationScheme is ultra vires the ‘National Food Security Act, 201’and is therefore a nullity in the eyes of the law.