The Kerala High Court has quashed the government order banning the manufacture, stocking, and sale of compostable plastic carry bags by bringing it under the purview of prohibited single-use/one-time-use plastic bags.
The court, however, made it clear that the government could take an appropriate policy decision on the ban of compostable plastic carry bags after gathering sufficient data/material to support such a decision.
The court passed the verdict while allowing a batch of writ petitions filed by manufacturers and distributors of compostable plastic carry bags against the government ban. They contended that the order infringed on their fundamental right under Article 19 (1)(g) of the Constitution to carry on their trade and business.
The government stand was that it took the decision based on a report of a technical task force which suggested that there was a growing number of instances where carry bags made from non-compostable plastic were being passed off as compostable ones.
The court observed that the government decision necessarily had to be based on reliable material in the form of empirical data that would clearly suggest the detection of fake composite carry bags entering the markets.
Only in such an event would the government be able to justify the curtailment of a fundamental right to trade or deal in a legitimate and non-polluting alternative to single-use plastic carry bags. Admittedly, the State government did not have any such material. It could not act “on mere conjectures and surmises, unsubstantiated by empirical evidence,” the court added.
