- (1.) The writ petition has been filed through the Association of Rice Millers and dealers within the State of Haryana as the name of the organization itself reveals. They seek to challenge a particular method of levy that is made by the Government for transport of custom milled rice from the places where mandis are situate or from the store yards of the procurement agencies to the respective mills. Contending that the respondents have also secured post-dated cheques for transportation to defray the transport charges, it is complained that such collection is without any statutory or contractual basis and they shall not be enforced. Since the levies have sought to be under the colour of authority by the proceedings of the Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary to the Government of Haryana dated 05.08.2009, the petition also contains a challenge to the notice as being arbitrary, without any legal statutory authority and violative of Article 19(1) (g) of the Constitution. The grievance could be better understood with reference to the facts which are brought through the averments in the petition.
(2.) The paddy delivered by various farmers on the basis of compulsory levies made, is custom milled at the mills with which the Government enters into contract through Department of Food and Supplies. The procurement agencies Hafed and Confed have them stored either at mandi or their own warehouses and they are transported to the various millers for having them milled as rice and delivered to the Food Corporation for distribution to the Central pool all across India. Before commencing the custom milling, an agreement is executed on a pro forma for each year by State agency and the rice millers are allocated a particular quantity. The rice millers are paid the milling charges depending on the quantity milled, provided that they conform to the quality as regards colour, purity etc. The issue for adjudication in this case is not with reference to any of the essential details relating to the payment of milling charges or issues of quality. On the other hand, the grievance is that after the completion of the contracts for the various Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) for years 2004- 2005 to 2007-2008, State Agencies were pressurizing the rice millers to pay the expenses incurred by the State to transport paddy during those periods from the grain markets/mandis/purchase centres to their own stocking points through independent transport contractors since the Government of India was itself not ready to defray the expenses. When such demands were made, the rice millers had a joint case to put up against the Central Government and to the State, contending that their obligations for transportation of paddy commenced only after the paddy was released to them for milling from the State agency stocking point and therefore, the State Agencies were responsible for transportation of paddy from Mandi/purchaser centre to their stocking points. Any expenses incurred by the State for transportation from the Mandis to their stocking centres ought to be their own business and the millers cannot be compelled to pay expenses for the same. However, when the Government sought to recover the expenses for transportation from the Mandi/purchase centres to their stocking points and made deductions against the payments due to the millers from the Kharif Season 2009- 2010 and also secured post-dated cheques, the millers were up in arms disputing the right of the State to make such deductions or recoveries through the cheques obtained by them by force.
(3.) The petitioner would point out to the fact that for all KMS 2004-05 to 2007-08, paddy had got released to the rice millers from the agencies stocking points for milling them into rice and the expenses for transportation of paddy from Mandi/purchase centres to storage points were also borne by the procurement agencies themselves. It is only at the time when the amounts spent by the Corporation were sought to be recovered from the milling agencies, the problem came to surface. Since the entire levy is sought to be made on the basis of communication said to be issued on 05.08.2009 from the Financial Commissioner-cum-Principal Secretary, it has become immediately necessary to refer to the basis and the justification sought to be made through the said communication.;