Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for KSRTC, argued that the fixation of price for a public body such as KSRTC at a higher price than the retail outlet is arbitrary and capricious.
He said that regardless of whether there exists an arbitration clause in KSRTC’s contract with the OMCs, where there is such a blatant violation of the right to equality under Article 14 that the High Court is empowered to intervene under Article 226.
However, Senior Advocate Parag Tripathi, appearing for the respondent OMCs, challenged the maintainability of the petition on the ground of the limited jurisdiction of the Court when there is a contractual agreement as opposed to a statutory requirement.
He also pointed out that the oil market is a deregulated one and that price fixation is arguably not the domain or forte of courts.
He argued that the rights under Article 14 also provide that ‘unequals’ must be treated unequally and since there is a clear differentiation between a bulk consumer such as KSRTC and a regular retail consumer, the differential pricing cannot be said to be arbitrary.
Source: Barandbench
