The Nashik APMC then approached the High Court, contending that Hing is legally and commercially recognized as a spice.
Justice Borkar observed that when the Central Act includes “Asafoetida” in its schedule of spices, the submission that Hing cannot be regarded as a spice at all cannot be accepted.
The Court rejected the argument that a commodity must be individually named to be regulated.
“If the State Government has used a class expression such as “मसाल्याचे पदार्थ”, then a commodity which properly falls within that class cannot be excluded only because its individual name is not separately mentioned. Otherwise, the general expression would have little meaning,” the Court observed while allowing the petition filed by Nashik APMC.