Whether garlic is a spice or a vegetable is a question that is a thorn in the flesh. However, when the issue reached the court, a two-judge bench has broken the deadlock. Garlic is an unimportant but ubiquitous kitchen staple. The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court had to decide on the nature of the plant and settle the heated debate generated by conflicting orders of the state government. The High Court’s decision will not only determine in which market the Madhya Pradesh government can sell garlic, but will also affect thousands of commission agents across the state.
In fact, accepting the appeal of a group of farmers, the Madhya Pradesh Mandi Board passed a resolution in 2015 and included garlic in the category of vegetables. However, soon after this, the Agriculture Department canceled the order giving garlic the status of spice, citing the Agricultural Produce Market Committee Act 1972.
Hearing the case, a bench of Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice D. Venkataraman has now upheld the 2017 order, which states that garlic is perishable and therefore it is a vegetable. However, the High Court has said in its decision that this garlic can be sold in both vegetable and spice markets, which will get rid of the restrictions imposed on its trade and will benefit both farmers and sellers.
This case was going on in the High Court for many years. The Potato Onion Garlic Commission Agent Association first approached the Indore Bench of the High Court in 2016 against the order of the Chief Secretary, then the single judge bench gave a verdict in their favor in February 2017. But after this decision, the traders had said that this would benefit the commission agents and not the farmers.
Petitioner Mukesh Somani filed a review petition against it in July 2017, which was accepted by the High Court and referred to a two-judge bench. The bench, in January 2024, ruled that the earlier decision of the High Court would benefit only traders, not farmers, and included it again in the category of spices.
Garlic traders and commission agents sought a review of that order in March this year. The matter finally came up before a bench of Justices Dharmadhikari and Venkataraman this time. The bench, in its order dated July 23, restored the February 2017 order, allowing the managing director of the Mandi Board to make changes in the Mandi rules, as originally made in 2015. “In fact, the Mandi has been established in the interest of the farmers and vendors, so that they can get better price for their produce, therefore, whatever bye-laws are made or amended, they shall be deemed to be in the interest of the farmers,” the order said.
The order said that in the present case, the withdrawal of Krishi Upaj Mandi establishes that the farmers had represented that garlic should be allowed to be sold as a (vegetable) through agents and the state government has recommended it as a spice. Let us tell you that this order of the High Court was made public on Monday.
Madhya Pradesh Mandi Board Joint Director Chandrashekhar said that the order will allow commission agents to bid for garlic in vegetable markets. Meanwhile, Mandsaur garlic farmer Parmanand Patidar said that now we have two options to sell our produce, so we have no problem with this arrangement. Garlic is already being sold at the highest price.
