Kerala has a lot of money, says SC declining to consider plea on rising fuel prices

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider a plea by the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation for a direction to the Centre to create an independent regulatory authority under a former judge to control the rising fuel prices.

The state-owned corporation was concerned over the PSU oil marketing companies’ decision to sell diesel to the bulk purchasers at a higher price compared to the market rate.

Taking up the plea, a bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari said, "The State has a lot of money as it is the only State which paid life time pension to personal staff of Ministers employed for two years."

The court refused to entertain the matter but allowed a plea by senior advocate V Giri on behalf of KSRTC to approach the High Court.

Terming the OMC’s decision of February 1 to increase the diesel price for bulk purchasers as “manifestly discriminatory, arbitrary and unreasonable,” the Corporation sought its revocation as it would burden the KSRTC, already suffering exponential financial crisis year after year and might eventually lead to its shutting down.

The public transport utility further said if it today chooses to purchase diesel from retail outlets, it will have to pay Rs 93.47 per litre against Rs 97.88 per litre charged by PSU OMCs and this “discrimination is totally illogical.”

Stating that the average consumption of diesel by the Corporation is around 4.10 lakh litres per day, the petition stated that the OMC’s decision will result in an approximate accumulated loss of around Rs 19 lakh, which will add to the currently persisting acute financial crisis being suffered by KSRTC.

The plea contended the central government by introducing petrol price deregulation has passed the buck to the OMC to fix the price without any timely intervention or regulation. In the absence of any regulatory authority to check the malpractice and exploitation by the OMCs, the hapless consumers are forced to bear the brunt of the uncontrolled price hike, it contended.

The plea also maintained that the fuel price decontrol system allowed by the Petroleum Ministry since 2014 was being exercised in “colorable manner for the purpose of helping the private players in the industry.”

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