The court also vacated the stay on detention of these persons under the Act. The four persons are Gujarat State Co-operative Marketing Society (GUJCOMASOL) officer Rajendra J Sabugoda, Hynoup Food and Oil Industry director Ashwin P Patel, Hynoup production in-charge B C Patel and Diamond Oil Industry manager Jayesh K Guru. The State government had passed a tender of GUJCOMASOL for supplying groundnut oil for use in the mid-day meal scheme. The GUJCOMASOL in turn asked Hynoup and Diamond Industry to supply groundnut oil.

But the groundnut oil was found to be adulterated. Investigation also revealed that some groundnut oil stock was siphoned off. After this, Mehsana district magistrate on August 3, 1998 ordered detention of these four persons under Section 3 of the Prevention of Black marketing Act. But the four moved the Gujarat High Court challenging the detention order. The petition alleged that the detention order was politically motivated. But government pleader Prashant Desai submitted that the petition was not maintainable because the petitioners had not yet surrendered before the authorities.