The Jammu and Kashmir High Court directed the Secretary, Department of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs, Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Civil Secretariat, Jammu to consider and decide the representation of the petitioner on adopting a stringent policy in distribution of essential commodities to curb dumping, pilferage, hoarding and corruption.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice (Acting) Tashi Rabstan and Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed seeking following reliefs:
i. Writ of Mandamus commanding upon the Respondents to appoint a modern scientific storage system (SILOS) and targeted Public Distribution System in State of J&K for curbing the wastage of food grains.
ii. With the further direction to Respondents to adopt stringent policy in distribution of essential commodities to curb malpractices like dumping, pilferage, hoarding and corruption and to adopt standard operating mechanism for storage and transportation of kerosene in interest of public at large.
It is the submission of the petitioner that before filing the PIL in the court, the petitioner had approached the Secretary, Department of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs, J&K Govt., Civil Secretariat, Jammu dated 10.05.2019. It is further the submission of the petitioner that till date, no decision has been taken on the representation. In view of the above backdrop, the petitioner has approached the court by way of filing the instant PIL.
Having heard the counsel for the parties and perused the record the Court held that the respondents are duty bound to consider and decide the grievances of the public if any person approaches them in accordance with law. In this case, the petitioner has approached them by way of filing the representation dated 10.05.2019.
The Court accordingly disposed of the Public Interest Litigation by directing the Secretary, Department of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs, J&K Govt., Civil Secretariat, Jammu to consider and decide the representation dated 10.05.2019 of the petitioner in a time bound manner preferably within a period of six weeks from the date copy of the order along with complete paper book is supplied to it.