JOIN USThe Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plea seeking direction to the Centre to bring out the details at whose instance the policy on FDI in multi-brand retail was introduced by the government.
A three-judge bench presided over by Justice R M Lodha said the court cannot venture into a roving or fishing inquiry to decide if there could be a better policy or not.
The court expressed its satisfaction over an affidavit filed by the Commerce Ministry’s department of industrial policy and promotion, stating that farmers would get benefit from direct sales to organised retailers and the policy would not destroy local trade.
As Additional Solicitor General Siddharth Luthra brought out the details of the policy’s benefits, the court said it could interfere with a policy decision only as per the constitutional mandates and not due to individual philosophies on correctness of a policy.
“We cannot go beyond the question if a policy is violative of Constitutional provisions or not. There was a flaw in its legal status and that was duly repaired by bringing in proper amendments and notifying it in the gazette. We cannot direct the government to disclose the source of information and reasons that prompted them to draft a particular policy,” the court said.
Advocate M L Sharma, who filed the PIL wanted the court to direct the Centre to bring on record minutes of the meeting in which the decision to allow 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail was taken.
Giving Sharma time till March 19, the bench also comprising Justices J Chelameswar and Madan B Lokur said: “All the details are given in the affidavit. We cannot conduct a roving inquiry if there had to be a better policy or whether the benefits spelt out will be realised or not. ”