The Madras High Court on Friday reserved orders on a batch of cases filed by government contractors expressing their inability to supply additional quantity of palm olein at old prices to the Tamil Nadu State Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) due to the steep rise in prices of the commodity following the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
Justice G. R. Swaminathan deferred the verdict on the batch after hearing Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram for TNCSC and senior counsel A. L. Somayaji and A. R. L. Sundaresan for various contractors who feared that the corporation might blacklist them if they do not supply the additional quantity at old prices.
In his affidavit, Suresh Gattreddi, partner of Starshine Logistics based in Chennai, said the firm was in the business of providing logistics and trading in food products such as pulses, edible oils and sugar. It had also obtained importer-exporter code for the purpose of importing and exporting the food products.
