MUMBAI, August 10: A petition urging the Bombay High Court to direct the state government to stabilise wholesale and retail prices of vegetables and edible oils was rejected outright by Chief Justice M B Shah and Y S Jahagirdar on Monday.The petition, filed by the Mumbai Grahak Panchayat on July 22, urged the court to ensure stabilisation of prices as per the price chart for March, 1998. It also wanted the state government to set up a permanent price monitoring mechanism to keep prices under control and protect consumers. The Essential Commodities Act empowers the state and central governments to create adequate machinery to check prices and keep them uniform throughout the state, said the petition. Advocate Shirish Deshpande represented the Panchayat. The petition pointed out that vegetable prices had risen by over 200 to 400 per cent over the last three months, and that state Food and Civil Supplies ministry had not intervened to check rising prices. The government had indirectly allowed commissionagents and traders to make huge profits for obvious political reasons, stated the petition. Some traders were creating an artificial scarcity of vegetables and deliberately pushing the prices, it alleged.The Panchayat counsel argued that as per section 3-A of the Commodities Act, the central government can issue a notification to stem the price rise based on the average of prices prevalent in the preceding three months and prevent malpractices.
