- (1.) EXCEPT the petitioner in W.P. No.25230 of 2012, the petitioners in the rest of the writ petitions are shareholders of Kallakurichi-II Cooperative Sugar Mill, a cooperative society registered under the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Societies Act. The petitioner in W.P. No.25230 of 2012 is one Integrated Service Point Pvt. Ltd. and it is the fifth respondent in W.P. Nos.25116, 25212 and 25250 of 2012 and it is a Company engaged in the business of trading in various agricultural commodities, including molasses, with various foreign countries and it is recognised by the Government of India as an export-house.
(2.) 16 cooperative and public sector sugar mills in Tamil Nadu are concerned in these writ petitions. These mills are under the control of the Director of Sugar, the first respondent in all the writ petitions and the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Sugar Federation Limited ("the Federation" for short), the second respondent in all the writ petitions. Those 16 cooperative and public sector sugar mills sold 1 lakh MT of molasses, a commodity which comes as a by-product during the course of manufacture of sugar in sugar mills, to three companies, viz., Suraj Agimpex House, Integrated Service Point Private Ltd. and Imcola Exports Ltd., shortly called as "Suraj ", "Integrated " and "Imcola " respectively. All the writ petitions, except the writ petition in W.P. No.25230 of 2012, question the sale of 1 lakh MTs of molasses to the aforesaid three companies on the ground that the public property, viz., molasses, is sold at a throw-away price of Rs.1,410/- per MT.
(3.) FOR the sake of clarity, the petitioners in all the writ petitions, except the petitioner in W.P. No.25230 of 2012, are called "the petitioners" The facts leading to the filing of these writ petitions by the petitioners are as follows: 6.1 The Special Officer of the Federation issued open auction-cum-tender notice dated 06.06.2012 for sale of 1 lakh MTs of molasses for the purpose of export to other countries. The said open-auction-cum-tender notice dated 06.06.2012 was published on 07.06.2012 in the "Indian Express" in all its editions and in the "Dhina Mani", a Tamil daily, in Tamil Nadu. By the said notice, sealed tenders were invited for the sale of molasses and qualified exporters alone were eligible to participate in the open auction-cum-tender. 6.2 The aforesaid notice stated that the tender documents could be obtained from the office of the Federation on payment of Rs.500/- by cash or demand draft drawn in favour of the Federation at Chennai and that the tender documents would disclose the quantity of molasses available mill-wise. 6.3 As per the open auction-cum-tender notice dated 06.06.2012 which was published on 07.06.2012 in the dailies as stated above, the last date for issue of tender forms was 14.06.2012 and the last date for submission of filled up tender forms was 11.00 a.m. on 15.06.2012 and the opening of Part-I tender was at 11.30 a.m. on 15.06.2012. It was further stated in the said open auction-cum-tender notice that the tenderers shall pay Earnest Money Deposit at the rate of Rs.100 per MT of the tendered quantity. 6.4 The aforesaid three companies participated in the open auction-cum-tender. In the said open auction-cum-tender, 1 lakh MTs of molasses were sold at a uniform price of Rs.1,410/- per MT to those three companies, the break-up being, 60,000 MTs were sold to Suraj and 20,000 MTs each were sold to Integrated and Imcola. 6.5 According to the petitioners, the established procedures with regard to the sale of 1 lakh MTs of molasses were not strictly followed for the reasons best known to the respondents 1 and 2 in order to benefit the selected companies. 6.6 It is averred by the petitioners that 1 lakh MTs of molasses were sold at a throw-away price to the aforesaid three companies; while the respondents 1 and 2 sold molasses of the cooperative sugar mills for export purposes at the rate of Rs.4,100/- per MT during the year 2009, selling 1 lakh MT of molasses at Rs.1,410/- per MT was only to favour the aforesaid three companies. 6.7 It is also pleaded by the petitioners that in Pondicherry, molasses was sold at the rate of Rs.3,551 per MT during March 2012 and at the rate of Rs.4,300/- per MT during July 2012 to exporters; in the neighbouring southern States, viz., Karnakata, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and also Maharashtra, molasses is sold at the rate of Rs.3,800/-, Rs.4,300/- and Rs.4,400/- per MT, excluding export fee or administrative service fee; thus, the sale of 1 lakh MTs to the three companies at the rate of Rs.1,410/- per MT resulted in huge loss to the tune of Rs.26,90,00,000/- (Rupees Twenty Six Crores and Ninety Lakhs) to the cooperative and public sector sugar mills. ;