: Madras High Court today dismissed a PIL seeking a direction to the civil supplies and consumer Protection Department to take immediate steps on a war footing to restore availability of essential commodities to public.
"The writ petition is based on newspaper reports and without any other groundwork. The Grievance made by the petitioner cannot be termed as PIL. Dismissed," said the first bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice M Sundar before which the PIL came up. Petitioner D Simon, a city resident, submitted that all fair price shops in Tamil Nadu were not distributing essential commodities like sugar, kerosene, palm oil and dhal,apart from the 10 kg rice given free of cost.
Instead of rice, the poor people were being given only wheat, he said, adding this had already been published in various vernacular news papers.
Simon referred to various newspaper reports and said the authorities had not taken any steps to issue tender for procurements of essential commodities.
The petitioner said the entire Tamil Nadu has already been declared drought hit and under these circumstances, it was the bounden duty of the state to guarantee availability of food for citizens of the State.
The First bench, while dismissing the petition, noted that the Government pleader had submitted that Tamil Nadu is one of the best states in supplying essential commodities to the poor and needy people.
"On hearing the learned counsels for the parties we are of the view that the petitioner is bereft of material particulars or statistics. Writ petition is based on news paper reports and without any other ground work. The grievance of the petitioner cannot be termed as PIL. Dismissed.
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