Article 19(1)(g) grants the right to trade, but specific governmental allocations are not guaranteed, allowing the government discretion in policy decisions.

JUDGMENT :

Bivas Pattanayak, J.

1. This writ petition is filed by the petitioners under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for a direction upon respondent nos.1 to 4 to make allocation of kerosene oil to the State of West Bengal considering the per capita requirement on uniform basis at par with other States and not to make any further curtailment in the allocation of kerosene oil to the State of West Bengal.

2. The brief fact of the petitioners’ case in a nutshell is as follows:

(i) The petitioner no.1 is a trade association of Kerosene Oil Agents appointed by various Oil Companies, who are functioning under licenses granted by the State of West Bengal in terms of West Bengal Control Order, 1968 and is a non-profit organization registered under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961.

(ii) The petitioner no.2 is also an agent of an Oil Company and General Secretary of petitioner no.1, the trade association of Kerosene Oil Agents.

(iii) The allocation of kerosene oil to the State Governments for distribution through Public Distribution System to the designated consumers is made by the Central Government.

(iv) The issue of allocation of kerosene oil by the Central Government to State Governments was referred to National Council of Applied Economic Research (in short ‘NCAER’), which was duly sponsored by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

(v) As per the report of NCAER there is no basis for allocation of kerosene oil to different State Governments by the Central Government. It also found that in States where there was more misuse and syphoning off to black market, the allocation was more. Accordingly, it made certain recommendation for uniform allocation of kerosene oil to different States and Union territories. However, till date, the same has not been implemented.

(vi) Several representations were made by the State of West Bengal indicating required allocation of kerosene oil to the designated consumers and in the year 2000 it was disclosed by the Government of West Bengal that the requirement is 1,16,000 KL. However, the allocation of kerosene oil to the State of West Bengal has been reduced from time to time and drastically reduced in the year 2016-17 from 78,608 KL to 58,668 KL.

(vii) The petitioners apprehends that the allocation of kerosene oil may be further reduced which would cause hardship and inconvenience to the designated consumers under the Public Distribution System and also the members of petitioner no.1-trade association, whose right to trade is affected unreasonably by such reduction in allocation of kerosene oil.

(viii) The appointment of members of petitioner no.1-trade association were given upon proof of credibility and on providing adequate infrastructure such as procurement of land, construction of storage tanks, office, machineries and huge man power for running the Oil Agency Business and had to give an undertaking that they will remain full time engaged in the said business and thus with the reduction of allocation of kerosene oil the business of the members of petitioner no.1-trade association, which is their only source of livelihood, would be affected.

(ix) On 13th October, 2016, the petitioners made a representation before the Hon’ble Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas with a request not to curtail allocation of kerosene oil any further.

(x) The members of petitioner no.1-trade association, who are agents, not