- (1.) THE petitioner is the owner of a sugar factory at Mohidpur Road district ujjain, known as Seth Govindram Sugar Mills. By this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, the petitioner seeks quashing of a Notification of the Central government, dated 12th November 1970, fixing the minimum price of sugarcane for the year 1970-71 at the rate of Rs. 7. 77 per quintal for the petitioner's factory.
(2.) THE impugned Notification was issued by the Central Government under clause 3 of the Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966, made under Section 3 of the essential Commodities Act, 1955. Clause 3 of the Order in so far as relevant reads as follows:- "3. Minimum price of sugarcane payable by producer of sugar.-- (1)The Central Government may, after consultation with such authorities, bodies or associations as it may deem fit, by notification in the Official Gazette, from time to time, fix the minimum price of sugarcane to be paid by producers of sugar or their agents for the sugarcane purchased by them, having regard to- (a) the cost of production of sugar-cane; (b) the return to the grower from alternative crops and the general trend of prices of agricultural commodities; (c) the availability of sugar to the consumer at a fair price; (d) the price at which sugar produced from sugarcane is sold by producers of sugar; and (e) the recovery of sugar from sugar-cane : provided that the Central Government or, with the approval of the Central Government, the State Government, may, in such circumstances and subject to such conditions as it may specify, allow a suitable rebate in the price so fixed. Explanation.-- (1) Different prices may be fixed for different areas or different qualities or varieties of sugarcane.
(3.) FOR the year 1970-71, the Central Government fixed the basic minimum price of sugarcane at Rs. 7. 37 per quintal linking it to the recovery of sugar from sugarcane at 9. 4% or less. This was also the basic minimum price for the years 1967-68, 1968-69 and 1969-70. The Central Government also allowed a premium at the rate of 6. 6 paise for every increase of 0. 1% of recovery over the basic recovery of 9. 4%. For fixing the minimum price payable by a factory, the recovery of sugar taken into account is for the period from 1st December to 31st March of the previous year. As the recovery during this period in 1969-70 so far as the petitioner's factory is concerned was 9. 96%, the minimum price for the factory for 1970-71 was fixed at Rs. 7. 77 per quintal. The petitioner's grievance is two-fold. First that in fixing the minimum price the Central government is not entitled to take into account the recovery of the previous year and that it must take into account the recovery of the year for which the price is fixed. The second grievance of the petitioner is that the recovery should be taken not of a part of the year but of the entire year. It is not disputed that the overall recovery of sugar from sugarcane used in the petitioner's factory was 9. 59% during 1969-70 and 9. 30% during 1970-71. If these figures are taken into account In fixing the minimum price for sugarcane purchased by the petitioner's factory during 1970-71, the minimum price would be less than Rs. 7. 77 fixed by the Central Government under the impugned Notification.;