- (1.) Heard S/Sri Bharat ji Agarwal & R.N. Trivedi, Senior Advocates assisted by Dr R.K. Srivastava, Akhilesh Kalra, Dhruv Mathur on behalf of the Petitioners and Sri J.N. Mathur, Addl. Advocate General assisted by Sri H.P. Srivastava, Addl. Chief Standing Counsel on behalf of the Respondents-State.
(2.) Petitioners are the Public Limited Companies in terms of Companies Act, 1956 and are engaged in the business of manufacturing sugar by Vacuum Pan Process and to sugar factories, distilleries are also attached. Molasses, is the bye-product of the sugar mill owned by the Petitioners' company which is the raw-material for distilleries and is utilized at the distilleries for captive/own consumption.
(3.) In all the afore-captioned writ petitions, the Petitioners have questioned the validity of Clause 2(d-1), 8(4) and 8(5) of the U.P. Sheera Niyantran Adhiniyam [hereinafter referred to as the 'impugned Act' for the sake of brevity] as amended by the U.P. Act No. 10 of 2009, therefore, all the writ petitions have been clubbed together and are being disposed of by this common judgment. By these petitions, the Petitioners have assailed the levy of "Administrative Charges" on the molasses, which is carried outside the premises of the Sugar factories, maybe for own distilleries located at distinct places.;