R.K. Agrawal, J. - (1.) By means of the present writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner, M/s Dhampur Sugar Mills Ltd., through its Vice President, Sri J.S. Sharma, seeks the following reliefs: "(a) issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari calling for the records and quashing the impugned G.Os. dated 9.6.2004 & 10.6.2004 and orders dated 15.6.2004 & 26.6.2004 passed by the Respondents No. 2 and 3 respectively i.e. (Annexure Nos. 14, 15 and 16 to this writ petition, respectively). (b) issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing the orders dated 26.7.2004, 3.8.2004, 27.8.2004, 2.9.2004 issued by the respondent No. 3 and show cause notice dated 4.9.2004 issued to the petitioner sugar mills by the Respondent No. 3 i.e. (Annexure Nos. 18, 21 and 26 to this writ petition respectively). (c) issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Mandamus staying the operation of the impugned show cause notice dated 4.9.2004 and the respondents may be restrained from taking any punitive/coercive action against all factories/units of the petitioner company and the respondents may further be restrained from initiating the action Under Section 11 & 12 of the U.P. Sheera Niyantran Adhiniyam, 1964. (d) issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of Mandamus directing the State Government not to allot the Molasses from the petitioner Sugar Mills for the purpose of manufacturing the country liquor to the other factories. (e) issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of which this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case. And (f) Award the costs to the writ petition."
(2.) Briefly stated, the facts giving rise to the present petition are as follows:- The petitioner, M/s Dhampur Sugar Mills Ltd., is a public limited company incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 and has its registered office at Dhampur (Bijnor). It manufactures sugar by vacuum pan process in its sugar factories situate at Dhampur in the district of Bijnor, Asmouli in the district of Moradabad, Mansurpur in the district of Muzaffarnagar and Roza Gaon in the district of Barabanki. According to the petitioner, Munsurpur unit is its subsidiary. It has been granted licence to manufacture ethyl alcohol for use in chemicals by the Central Government and it is claimed by the petitioner that it has also been given the licence to manufacture and sell power alcohol. The State Government had recently in September, 2004 granted permission to the petitioner to manufacture rectified spirit. It has its own distillery at Dhampur. According to the petitioner, during the process of manufacture of sugar, molasses comes out as a bye- product. The molasses produced by it is not sufficient to meet the requirement of its distillery and, therefore, it had to import molasses from Nepal and alcohol from other countries. The capacity of its distillery is 1.4 lacs litre per day to 2 lacs litres per day. The petitioner's requirement of molasses for its distillery is about 21 lacs quintal per annum. The State Government, vide letter dated 9.6.2004, after due consideration and in public interest decided to make amendment in its molasses policy relating to year 2003-04. Clause (3) of the policy, as contained in the letter dated 29.6.2004, addressed by the State Government to the Excise Commissioner, U.P., Allahabad is relevant for the purpose of the present writ petition, which provides that from the balance stock of molasses of each sugar mills 20% shall be reserved for the distillery manufacturing country liquor. The sugar mills having their own distillery shall not be covered by this reservation to the extent that after consumption of molasses in their captive distillery 20% reservation shall be applicable on the balance stock. The aforesaid clause was amended vide letter dated 15.6.2004 and it was provided that the stock of molasses would be reckoned as on 15.4.2004. Vide order dated 26.6.2004 the Controller of Molasses had issued allotment orders for the financial year 2003-2004 upto November, 2004 for the use in manufacture of country liquor. It provided that this allotment would be from 20% stock of molasses available with the sugar mills as on 15.4.2004.
(3.) In order to ensure that the allottees were getting the requisite quantity of molasses from the sugar mills, the Controller of Molasses, U.P., Allahabad issued a general direction on 26.7.2004, 3.8.2004 and 2.9.2004 for ensuring that requisite information be collected and submitted to him as to whether the sugar mills are selling their molasses to the distilleries for manufacture of country liquor as per allotment or not. The petitioner, vide letter dated 11.8.2004, requested the Deputy Excise Inspector, posted at the sugar mills, that as it has its own distillery and is facing shortage of molasses and being on the verge of closure, permission be granted to utilise the molasses available with their sugar mills. The Deputy Excise Inspector, vide letter dated 12.8.2004 asked for certain clarifications. The clarifications was given vide letter dated 6/7.9.2004 and it was stated therein that 20% reservation of available stock of molasses as on 15.4.2004 in their case is not applicable as it already has a captive distillery. The petitioner also made a representation on 7.9.2004 before the Excise Commissioner, U.P., Allahabad who is also the Controller of Molasses. In the meantime, the Additional Excise Commissioner on behalf of the Controller of Molasses, vide letter/notice dated 4.9.2004, has asked the petitioner to show cause as to why action be not taken for violation of Sections 8(1), 11 and 12 of the U.P. Sheera Niyantran Adhiniyam, 1964 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") as the petitioner had not sold the reserved molasses to the distilleries for manufacture of country liquor. Notices were issued to the occupier of all the sugar factories of the petitioner situated at Mansurpur, Dhampur, Roza Gaon and Asmouli. The petitioner, vide letter dated 16.9.2004, had submitted its reply and once again reiterated that molasses produced by its Sugar Mills is cent per cent control free for sale, meaning thereby that no order for supply of molasses can be issued under Section 8(1) of the Act till the policy for molasses year 2004-05 is declared. It was further submitted that as the petitioner owns a distillery, there is no question of supplying/selling molasses to other distilleries for manufacture of country liquor. A supplementary explanation was given vide letter dated 19.9.2004. The Government Orders dated 9.6.2004, 10.6.2004, 15.6.2004, 26.6.2004 as also the order dated 26.7.2004, 3.8.2004, 27.8.2004, 2.9.2004 issued by the Controller of Molasses, U.P., Allahabad and the notice dated 4.9.2004 is under challenge in the present petition.;