TUNGBHADRA INDUSTRIES LTD. Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied by the Judgement and order dated 6-10-1988 passed by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in Writ Petition No. 13078 of 1984 the appellant has filed this appeal. Before the High Court it was contended by the appellant that the appellant's manufacturing plant of vanaspati was situated at Kurnool, Secunderabad and Hyderabad during the relevant period i.e. 1-11-1977 to 6-8-1983. The appellant was supplied its requirement of imported oils from the State Trading Corporation Depot Port area. For transporting the imported oil from Visakhapatnam to its plant, the appellant was incurring an expenditure of Rs. 325. per tonne whereas applying the "Fergusson formula" it was being reimbursed only an amount of Rs. 175. With the result, on each tonne of imported oil, the appellant was obliged to incur an extra expenditure of Rs. 150. As against this, the manufacturers whose units were situated close by the depot maintained by STC, namely, manufacturers in the North were required to incur less costs, as in some cases the depot was situated within their own premises. It is contended that to these manufacturers the cost of transport was only Rs. 260. It was also contended that in addition to sales tax the appellant was required to pay octroi. As against this, in almost all Northern States there was no sales tax nor was octroi levied nor was it paid. It was, therefore, submitted that the appellant was required to incur higher cost than the manufacturers whose factories were situated in northern part. Therefore, it was contended that the fixation of the uniform selling price was arbitrary and discriminatory and the respondent be directed to reimburse the said amount to the appellant.

(2.) For the said grievances, the appellant and others preferred writ petitions before this Court. When the petitions came up for hearing on 8-2-1982 the Court passed the following order:

(3.) Admittedly, in pursuance of the order passed by this Court, the Central Government constituted a committee known as Parmeswaran Committee to consider the problem. The Committee submitted its report and after considering the same at various levels, the Central Government decided to accept the same and implement it with effect from 6-8-1983. It is the grievance of the petitioners that the Central Government acted arbitrarily in not giving retrospective effect to the report. It is, therefore, prayed that the respondents be directed to reimburse to the petitioner the difference in payment of sales tax as well as the freight charges.