KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday directed Milma to file a detailed statement about the production and marketing of Milma milk in the state.A Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice C N Ramachandran Nair and Justice P S Gopinathan passed the order while considering an appeal by Martin Paiva, Kaloor, challenging the Single Judge order to uphold Milma’s decision to hike the milk price by `5 per litre. The court directed Milma that the statement should include the places from where milk is collected, the nature of marketing, rate at which milk producing societies are paid and purchase of milk from outside the state. The court further directed to produce the bylaw of Milma and balance sheet.Earlier, the Single Judge had quashed the order by the Registrar of Dairy Development directing Milma to revoke its decision to increase milk price, while considering a petition by Milma (Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd) challenging the state government’s decision to interfere in the milk price hike. The petitioner submitted that without considering the government’s dissent Milma decided to hike the price, and the same is upheld by the court. He alleged that Single Judge order has not taken into consideration the public interest, hence the order is improper and contrary to law. The petitioner further added that fixing of the price of milk is only a legislative matter and does not come under the purview of judicial review. “The federation is also making byproducts like ghee whereby the federation is getting huge income, which is not taken into consideration while assessing the actual value of the milk sold to the consumers,” the petitioner said. The court will consider the case after two weeks.
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