YEAST ALCO ENZYMES LIMITED Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Letters Patent Appeal under Clause XV of the Letters Patent is directed against the decision of V. V. Bedarkar J. in Special Civil Application No. 959 of 1983. The learned single Judge partly allowed the Special Civil Application in favour of the present appellants who are the original petitioners. The appellants feeling aggrieved by that part of the judgment of the learned Judge by which their claim for being awarded pioneer unit benefits under the Govt. Resolution dated 27-8-1980 at Annexure B to the petition has been rejected have moved the present appeal. The respondent-autho- rities have not filed any cross appeal and have acquiesced in the decision of the learned single Judge allowing the writ petition partly and in granting some of the benefits to the appellants under the very game resolution. As the appellants are the original petitioners and the respondents are the original respondents in the writ petition for the sake of convenience we will refer to the appellants as the petitioners and respondents as original respondents in the later part of this judgmentS

(2.) In order to highlight the grievance of the petitioners in the present proceedings it is necessary to note a few introductory facts. Introductory facts: The petitioner-Company was initially incor- porated as Gohilwad Sugar Mills (Private) Limited under Registration No. 2058 dated 29-3-1972. Subsequently its name was altered into Yeast Alco Enzymes (Private) Limited. The said Company came to be converted into a public limited company under a certificate issued on 9 The registered office of the Company is at Ahmedabad but it carries on its works scar Shetrunjaya Dam Site Palitana in the district of Bhavnagar.

(3.) The Company when it was Gohilwad Sugar Mills (P.) Ltd. purchased the assets of M/s. Patel Sugar Mills at the cost of Rs. 21 lakhs. The said assets consisted of Khandsari unit with the land at village Moti Paniali In Palitana taluka of Bhavnagar district. When the Company was running Khandsari unit at Moti Paniali it decided to have new project of Industrial alcohol and for that purpose purchased lands nearby within the revenue limits of another village Nani Paniali with a view to constructing building for the factory premises for new plant of alcohol. In the meantime working of Khandsari unit came to difficulties and bed the end of 1977 the work of Khandsari unit came to a grinding halt. In the meantime petitioner No. 2 joined as a Director of the Company in the year 1977-78 and tried to boost up the work of Khandsari unit but his efforts failed. It could work for a few days in January 1978 and thereafter it got closed. The Company had not made any major further investment after it was purchased from Patel Sugar Mills and when Khandsari unit was working it used to employ about 60 to 70 persons during the season. Under the circum- stances the Company diverted its attention to new alcohol project. For that purpose the work of factory building was undertaken. But the plant as such could not be commissioned earlier. Originally the new project of Industrial alcohol was proposed to be with a capacity of 15 0 litres per day and D. C. T. D. registration was so obtained in 1976 but the Company never started commercial production of Industrial alcohol in those days.