On Friday, the High Court of Delhi asked authorities concerned to treat as a representation a plea filed by a flower trade association seeking directions to allow various types of cut flowers & flower buds through the Delhi Airport.

A division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel & Justice Prateek Jalan disposed of the plea with direction to treat the plea as representation & take decision on it within 8 weeks.

The Fresh Fruit Flowers & Vegetables Traders Association, through its lawyer Manohar Malik, had filed a petition seeking quashing of a notification of the Directorate General Of Foreign Trade dated July 9, 2020, which allows the import of cut flowers from Chennai airport only.

The petitioner said it filed the plea to safeguard the livelihood & survival of flower traders & avoid further loss being caused due to the issuance of the impugned notification. The plea alleged the notification issued by the respondent is unconstitutional, arbitrary, discriminatory & thus liable to be set aside & quashed.

The petition said, "The volume & demand for orchid cut flower in Delhi NCR is highest in the country & thus issuance of the impugned notification thereby imposing a complete ban on imports of various types of cut flowers including orchid cut flower import, through all airports of the country other than Chennai, does not have any reasonable justification when there is not much demand in Chennai for such imported cut flowers".

It said notification discriminates between flower traders of Delhi NCR with that of Chennai, & puts the flower traders in Chennai in a better position than the flower traders in the of the country. The petition also said the notification infringes upon the constitutional right of flower traders in Delhi region.

The plea stated that "The notification has been passed without considering the fact that cut flowers are perishable items & its freshness only lasts till 24 hours & then rapidly diminishes & therefore the condition of allowing import of cut flowers from Chennai airport only, banning all other airports of the country, is completely discriminatory & illogical since the same will make imports of cut flowers unfeasible because of its perishable nature coupled with doubling of the cost for such imports to be transported to Delhi from Chennai".

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