- (1.) IT is submitted that the Assistant Director of Agriculture, Tarakeswar in the district Hooghly is a Controller for the purposes of cl.9 of the Fertilizer (Control) Order, 1985.
(2.) THE provisions of cl.9 of the Control Order empower a Controller to grant or refuse a certificate of registration authorising one to sell or offer for sale or carry on business of selling of fertilizer as industrial dealer. In view of the mandatory provisions of cl.9 of the Control Order, the Controller must grant or refuse the certificate of registration within thirty days of the receipt of application for the certificate under cl.8 of the Control Order. The petitioners' case is this. The society intending to deal in fertilizer applied to the Controller for certificates of registration. The requisite fees accompanying the applications were paid on October 19, 2011. For undisclosed reasons the Controller did not give his decisions according to the provisions of cl.9 of the Control Order. This WP under art.226 is dated August 6, 2012. It was taken up for hearing on August 22, 2012 when the following order was passed:- "To enable Mr Banerjee to ascertain why the applications were not decided within the statutory period and to explain why the authority should not be ordered to pay costs, hearing is adjourned. To daily list as motion Thursday week. Certified xerox."
(3.) MR Banerjee is unable to say why the Controller did not decide the applications. It is evident that the Controller treating the applications with an indifference did not give any attention to the WP as well, inspite of the fact that he was to disclose why the applications were not decided within the statutory period and explain why he should not be ordered to pay costs. For these reasons, I dispose of the WP ordering as follows. Within a fortnight from the date this order is served, the Controller shall decide the petitioners' application and pay them Rs.5000 costs. Certified xerox.;