PATEL AABIDALI YUSUFBHAI Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Invoking the public interest jurisdiction of this Court, the petitioner, one Patel Aabidali Yusufbhai, resident of Village Kanai, Taluka Himmatnagar, Sabarkantha, filed this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution. What was prayed was to set aside Notification dated 11th April, 2020 issued by respondent Food and Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs Department in so far as the same which is a resolution of the respondent authorities, placed a mandatory requirement of producing of Adhar Card for the purpose of availing benefits under the said Notification.

(2.) The Notification in question issued by the respondent authorities contemplates as a policy decision for distribution of free ration and grocery to Non-NFSA APL-1 category persons, in order to facilitate this class of persons to get the essential commodities-grains etc. during the present crisis period when the country and the State has been facing lockdown due to which the public distribution has also suffered leaving the needy class of the society with serious hardships in getting the essential commodities-groceries and grains.

(3.) In the said Notification, it was contemplated inter alia that the distribution of free grocery would be allowed only on production of Adhar Card by the intended beneficiary and that no other identification would be treated as valid for being eligible for obtaining the benefit. When the petitioner complained to the Mamlatdar, Himmatnagar, with regard to the above condition by letter dated th 13 April, 2020 to request that insistence for Adhar Card only as compulsory identification for getting the benefit to the exclusion of other valid identifications, would be self-defeating to the purpose and that it would lead to greater hardships and injustice, the Mamlatdar replied that in the Notification, the Adhar Card was the only identification provided to be valid and since no other instructions were given, production of Adhar Card would be mandatory for getting the grocery by the citizen beneficiary concerned.