LAXMI KHANDSARI Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Inspired by the objective of removing nation-wide shortage of sugar and for the purpose of enhancing sugar production in order to achieve an equitable distribution of the commodity so as to make it available to consumers at reasonable rates, and thereby relieving the sugar famine, the Cane Commissioner, Government of Uttar Pradesh by virtue of a Notification dated 9th October, 1980, acting under clause 8 of the Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966, (hereinafter referred to as the 'Control Order') directed that no power crusher, with certain exceptions, of a khandsari unit or any agent of such owner in the reserved area of a mill could be worked until December 1, 1980. The exact contents of the Notification may be extracted thus:

(2.) The Control Order was passed by the Central Government in exercise of the powers conferred on it by Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act of 1955'). In order to understand the contentions raised by the parties it may be necessary to analyse the prominent features of the above Notification with reference to the situation it was intended to meet.

(3.) It is not disputed that sugar was being produced in the State of U. P. by the sugar mills through hydraulic process and by the power crushers through what is known as the 'open pan process'. Both the mills as also the crushers drew their raw material, namely, sugarcane, from the sugarcane growers. In order to facilitate production by the sugar mills, most of whom were controlled by the State, a reserved area of the fields growing sugarcane was fixed throughout the State. The Notification applied only to the reserved area of a mill and not to any other areas. In other words, any area which fell outside the reserved area was not affected by the Notification and the power crushers situated in that area could still manufacture khandsari by the open pan process. Thus, it would be seen that the ban imposed by the notification was confined only to a particular area in the State of U. P.