- (1.) Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied by the Judgement and order dated 6-10-1988 passed by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in Writ Petition No. 13078 of 1984 the appellant has filed this appeal. Before the High Court it was contended by the appellant that the appellant's manufacturing plant of vanaspati was situated at Kurnool, Secunderabad and Hyderabad during the relevant period i.e. 1-11-1977 to 6-8-1983. The appellant was supplied its requirement of imported oils from the State Trading Corporation Depot Port area. For transporting the imported oil from Visakhapatnam to its plant, the appellant was incurring an expenditure of Rs. 325. per tonne whereas applying the "Fergusson formula" it was being reimbursed only an amount of Rs. 175. With the result, on each tonne of imported oil, the appellant was obliged to incur an extra expenditure of Rs. 150. As against this, the manufacturers whose units were situated close by the depot maintained by STC, namely, manufacturers in the North were required to incur less costs, as in some cases the depot was situated within their own premises. It is contended that to these manufacturers the cost of transport was only Rs. 260. It was also contended that in addition to sales tax the appellant was required to pay octroi. As against this, in almost all Northern States there was no sales tax nor was octroi levied nor was it paid. It was, therefore, submitted that the appellant was required to incur higher cost than the manufacturers whose factories were situated in northern part. Therefore, it was contended that the fixation of the uniform selling price was arbitrary and discriminatory and the respondent be directed to reimburse the said amount to the appellant.
(2.) For the said grievances, the appellant and others preferred writ petitions before this Court. When the petitions came up for hearing on 8-2-1982 the Court passed the following order: "In these writ petitions counsel for the petitioners have expressed a desire to withdraw the petitions provided that the Central Government and State Trading Corporation are prepared to consider the representations which they propose to make. The learned Attorney- General agrees that representations which the petitioners and other manufacturers of vanaspati may make will be considered carefully and objectively from all relevant points of view including the questions which are covered by the undertakings given to the petitioners which have now We allow the petitioners to withdraw the writ petitions. We hope that the Central Government and State Trading Corporation will take a fair and final decision on the representations of the petitioners and other manufacturers of vanaspati as expeditiously as possible, preferably before 1-9-1982. The petitioners agree that they will make their representations within one month from today. If the Central Government decides to appoint a committee to go into the various questions which arise in these petitions, the Committee, we are sure, will give a proper hearing to the manufacturers of vanaspati individually, if necessary. The amounts payable towards 'inland freight equalisation charges' which the petitioners or some of them did not pay as a result of the stay orders passed by various High Courts became payable when the stay orders were vacated. Those amounts shall be paid subject to such convenience as State Trading Corporation may grant. We recommend that such of the petitioners who are liable to pay the amounts as aforesaid, may be granted the facility of paying the same in four equal monthly instalments with interest at 12% per annum from the due date of payment with monthly rests. There will be no order as to costs."
(3.) Admittedly, in pursuance of the order passed by this Court, the Central Government constituted a committee known as Parmeswaran Committee to consider the problem. The Committee submitted its report and after considering the same at various levels, the Central Government decided to accept the same and implement it with effect from 6-8-1983. It is the grievance of the petitioners that the Central Government acted arbitrarily in not giving retrospective effect to the report. It is, therefore, prayed that the respondents be directed to reimburse to the petitioner the difference in payment of sales tax as well as the freight charges.;