Karnataka High Court seeks stock of commercial LPG as State government restricts supply only to 1,000 cylinders for hotels per day

Karnataka High Court demands LPG supply details amid state restrictions, threatening Bengaluru's restaurants and livelihoods.

The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday (March 17) directed the State and Union governments to provide details of stocks of commercial Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders, while adjourning the next hearing to March 23 on a petition seeking uninterrupted supply of LPG to restaurants in Bengaluru city.

Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum passed the order on the petition filed by Bangalore Hotels’ Association, which has sought the court’s intervention on the issue of drastic reduction in commercial LPG cylinder supplies which has threatened to shut down hundreds of eateries, both small and big.

Meanwhile, an advocate representing the Central government told the court that a petition seeking the court’s intervention before the Bombay High Court was disposed of by recording the statement made by the Solicitor General of India, who had requested a division bench of the Bombay High Court to leave the issue to be addressed by the Central and State governments based on the current geopolitical issue in West Asia.

However, appearing for the petitioner, advocate Satish K. pointed out that as per the records of the State, an average 44,000 commercial LPG cylinders were being distributed daily across the State before the crisis began.

Now, the State government, through its order issued on March 16 citing various communications from the Centre, has directed the three Oil Marketing Companies to restrict the supply of commercial LPG cylinders to only 7,000 per day, of which only 1,000 cylinders have been earmarked for restaurants, dhabas, hotels and industrial canteens, which is less than 5% of regular requirements, the petition stated.

Mr. Satish further pointed out that there are about 40,000 hotels in Bengaluru alone employing over six lakh persons, and closure of hotels would impact their livelihoods.