MP: Garlic, Vegetable or Spice? MP High Court Settles Issue

 Bhopal: Garlic, the ubiquitous kitchen staple, has finally retained its identity, as a vegetable, after a prolonged court battle and intra- department tussle in the Madhya Pradesh government.

The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court has in its recent ruling classified the bulb as vegetable, settling the decade-long row involving the state government, the farmers, the traders and the commission agents over its classification.

The garlic is perishable and hence, it should be classified as vegetable, a division bench of the high court comprising Justice S A Dharmadhikari and Justice D Venkatraman said in a landmark judgement, which is billed to impact lakhs of garlic farmers and traders in the country.

The court has however held that garlic can also be sold in the spice markets, in addition to the vegetable markets, thus opening both the markets for trading of the commodity and benefitting both the farmers and traders.

The dispute as to whether garlic should be categorised as vegetable or spices took birth when the Madhya Pradesh Market Board in a resolution passed in 2015 termed it as vegetable to be sold in vegetable markets only following request to this effect by a group of farmers.

Later, the state agriculture department revoked the order and accorded the bulb the status of spices, while citing the Agriculture Produce Markets Committee Act of 1972.

The classification of the garlic decides the markets where the bulb will be sold by the farmers and traders, thus affecting lakhs of people linked to agriculture business.

However, the Potato Onion Garlic Commission Agent Association had moved the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court challenging the decision by the state agriculture department to classify garlic as spices.

A single bench of the high court in February 2017 had ruled that garlic is a vegetable.

In July, 2017, one Mukesh Somani filed a review petition in the high court on the matter.

A division bench of the high court in January 2024 reverted garlic back to the spice category, arguing that the earlier decision by the high court would only benefit the traders, not the farmers.

The Garlic Traders and Commission Agents filed a petition seeking a review of the order.

The division bench of the high court in its recent order has classified the garlic as vegetable, contending that it is perishable, but allowed the commodity to be sold both in vegetable and spice markets in the interest of ‘agriculturists and sellers’.