Delhi HC dismisses plea seeking 'formula' behind fuel pricing

New Delhi, Sep 19: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition seeking records from the oil companies on the rationale behind fuel pricing.

The application was filed on Tuesday in a pending petition challenging the daily rise in fuel rates and seeking a direction to the central government to fix a fair price for petrol and diesel by treating them as essential commodities.

The plea, filed by Delhi-based designer Pooja Mahajan, has sought direction to call the records from the government, including oil manufacturing companies, to disclose the formula and furnish necessary details on the basis of which daily prices of petrol and diesel are being fixed.

The government had claimed that petrol and diesel prices are fixed on account of increase in international prices. Admittedly, international price of crude oil is fixed on barrel basis, the plea said.

"Barrel is a unit of mass meaning thereby that crude oil is being sold in international market on mass/weight of the crude oil but here in India, petrol and diesel are sold on litre basis, without taking care of density/mass of petrol/diesel," the plea said.