The Allahabad HC Quashed The UP Government's Order To Give Self-Help Groups Priority In The Allocation Of Fair Price Shops

WHAT ARE SELF-HELP GROUPS

• Self-Help Groups (SHGs) are informal groups of people that meet to discuss how to improve their living conditions.
• It can be defined as a self-governing, peer-controlled information network of people with comparable socioeconomic backgrounds who want to work together to achieve a common goal.
• Poverty, illiteracy, a lack of skills, a lack of formal credit, and other issues affect villages. Individual efforts are insufficient to address these issues, which necessitate collaborative action.
• As a result, Self- Help Group has the potential to be a vehicle for change for the poor and marginalized. To foster self-employment and poverty alleviation, SHGs use the concept of "Self Help."

WHAT WAS THE UP GOVERNMENT’S ORDER

• UP government passed an order on July 7, 2020, to give preference to self-help groups in the allocation of fair price shops.

WHAT WERE THE OBSERVATIONS OF THE COURT

• The rural population has already suffered heavily due to a lack of food grains, which has resulted in food scams. Giving preference to self-help organizations in the allotment of fair-priced stores would be "counterproductive" and would not fulfil the true goal.
• The National Rural Livelihood Development Mission's issuance of a unique ID to grant a license to operate a fair price shop on behalf of the state is insufficient.
• The High Court observed that "registration of self-help groups and their operating under well-defined purposes, goals, and by-laws, as well as credibility standards, are relevant features to establish accountability."
• "Section 12(2)(e) of the National Food Security Act mandates an inclusive competition between people and various categories of public institutions or public organizations such as Panchayats, Self-Help Groups, Cooperative Societies, and so on."
• "Let no one die of hunger," the court stated, "is a basic obligation established under Article 47 of the Indian Constitution that must be construed as a part of the right to life under Article 21 for it is the right to food."

WHAT WAS THE ORDER OF THE COURT

• The government order was clearly in violation of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, as it prevents qualified village inhabitants and other legal entities such as cooperative societies or gramme panchayats from participating on an equal footing with self-help groups.
• Court further explained that its observations are not meant to imply that Self-help Groups are ineligible; rather, what the law seeks is an accountable Self-help Group with a legal existence in the eyes of the law, as well as a functional identity that is distinct from that of an individual.
• The Allahabad High Court quashed an order made by the Uttar Pradesh government giving priority to self-help groups in the allocation of fair price shops, to the exclusion of all other categories of people.

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