The Supreme Court declines to order the government to create a national policy for community kitchens across the country of India

The Supreme Court has declined to order the government to develop a national strategy for establishing community kitchens throughout India to provide the underprivileged with subsidized food, arguing that the reach of judicial review in analyzing policy concerns is very narrow.

It is a well-established fact that the reach of judicial review in analyzing policy issues is quite constrained. In its ruling on February 22, a bench headed by Justice Bela M. Trivedi said that “the courts do not and cannot examine the correctness, suitability, or appropriateness of a policy, nor are the court’s advisors to the executive on the matters of policy which the executive is entitled to formulate.”

“Courts cannot order the States to carry out a certain program or policy on the grounds that there is a better, more sensible, or equitable alternative. It said that the policy’s legality—rather than its wisdom or soundness—would be the focus of court examination and declined to provide any more guidance regarding a PIL brought by an individual named Arun Dhawan.

The Supreme Court ruled that sufficient amounts of food assistance were already provided to the underprivileged under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other social programs.

“We would prefer to leave it open to the States/UTs to explore such alternative welfare schemes as may be permissible under the NFSA,” the statement read. “We have not examined whether the concept of Community Kitchens is a better or wiser alternative available to the States to achieve the object of NFSA.”

“Therefore, we do not propose to direct the States/UTs to implement the concept of Community Kitchens as prayed for by the petitioners in the instant petition, given that the NFSA provides a systematic legal framework for the implementation of the schemes and programs like the Targeted Public Distribution System, Mid-day Meal Scheme, Integrated Child Development Services, and Maternity Cash Entitlement along with a Monitoring Mechanism and a Grievance Redressal Mechanism,” the petition stated.

“We do not propose to give any further direction in that regard,” the Bench stated, “because the NFSA, which uses a ‘right based approach’ to provide food and nutritional security, is in force and because the Union of India and the States have also framed and implemented other welfare schemes under the said Act to ensure access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity.”