HC issues notice to Punjab over outsourcing of mid-day meals

PIL alleges that the Punjab government violated Supreme Court rulings by handing mid-day meal contracts meant for local women’s groups to large private entities.

Written by Manraj Grewal Sharma

October 16, 2025 04:27 PM IST

3 min read

The division bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry issued the notice after hearing arguments from advocate R S Bains, who appeared for the petitioner.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court Thursday issued notice to the Punjab government on a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging its 2022 decision to outsource the preparation and supply of mid-day meals for government schoolchildren and nutritional supplements for pregnant and lactating women to large private entities.

The division bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry issued the notice after hearing arguments from advocate R S Bains, who appeared for the petitioner. Bains contended that the outsourcing move violated the principles laid down by the Supreme Court and the provisions of the National Food Security Act, which mandate decentralised preparation and distribution through local self-help groups and mahila mandals at the village or panchayat level.

Arguing before the bench, Bains submitted that since 2004, Punjab had followed a decentralised model for preparing and distributing take-home rations and mid-day meals through government cooperatives like Verka, which had the necessary production facilities. However, in 2022, the state floated fresh tenders and awarded contracts to four private companies, some of which allegedly lacked the infrastructure to prepare nutritional food items like panjiri.

He cited Supreme Court judgments, including those in cases from Maharashtra, where similar outsourcing to large corporate houses was struck down for being contrary to the “spirit of the Food Security Act.” The apex court, he said, had emphasised that local women’s groups and self-help collectives were best suited to supply supplementary nutrition to children and mothers under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).

Bains told the court that the Punjab government’s decision had effectively excluded smaller local producers by imposing high turnover and capacity conditions in the tender, allowing only big players “close to political personalities” to qualify. “If an organisation has a turnover of Rs 35 crore, how can that be compared to a self-help group preparing kichdi or panjiri at the village level?” he argued, adding that the decentralised model had worked well until 2022, when the new contracts were introduced.

The bench directed the state counsel to seek instructions and file a reply before the next hearing, noting the petitioner’s allegations that outsourcing had led to quality lapses, including instances of fungal contamination in the supplied food.

From the homepage