HUKAM CHAND Vs. HARYANA URBAN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals have been directed against the common judgment and order dated 24.04.2007 passed by the High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad in Letters Patent Appeal Nos. 139 of 2006 and 195 of 2006 in Special Civil Application No. 13606 of 2005 with Civil Application No. 514 of 2006 and Civil Application No. 1380 of 2006 filed by the appellant-Agricultural Produce Market Committee, Baroda (for short "APMC") as it is aggrieved by the dismissal of its Letters Patent Appeal No.195 of 2006. The High Court allowed Letters Patent Appeal No. 139 of 2006 preferred by the respondent-Company. Both the Letters Patent Appeals were filed against the order dated 22.12.2005 of learned single Judge passed in Special Civil Application No.13606 of 2005 whereby the learned single Judge substantially set aside the order dated 19.4.2005 of the Revisional Authority and partly allowed the application filed by the APMC by framing questions of law.

(2.) The brief facts of the case are stated below to appreciate the rival claims of the parties and to find out as to whether the appellant-APMC is entitled for the relief sought for in these appeals:

(3.) The APMC filed a Special Application No. 13606 of 2005 under Articles 226, 14 & 19 of the Constitution of India before the High Court against the said order of the State Government. The learned single Judge of the High Court after hearing the parties at length partly allowed the said application holding that the sale of the castor seeds in question took place within the market area of APMC, Baroda, therefore, APMC was right in levying the market fee on the castor seeds purchased by the respondent within the market area of APMC. The learned single Judge in respect to exemption clause in sub-rule 2 of Rule 48 held that the said exemption was available to the agricultural produce brought by the industrial concern itself from outside the market area into the market area of APMC and the exemption was not available where the castor seeds were bought within the market area by the seller and sold to the industrial concern within the market area. As such the learned single Judge upheld the plea of APMC for levy of market fee on the castor seeds purchased by the respondent-Company. In respect to the levy of market fee on de-oiled cake by APMC the learned single Judge accepted the contention urged on behalf of the respondent- Company and held that de-oiled cake could not be treated as oil cake, and therefore, it was not eligible for levy of market fee since it was not mentioned in the Schedule. Both the respondent-Company as well as the APMC being aggrieved by the judgment and order dated 22.12.2005 of the learned single Judge preferred Letters Patent Appeal No.139 of 2006 and Letters Patent Appeal No. 195 of 2006 respectively. The Division Bench of the High Court allowed the appeal preferred by the respondent-Company and dismissed the appeal preferred by the APMC and stated that as soon as the agricultural produce, namely, castor seeds, bought by the representatives of the Company, is brought from outside the market area into the market area, after payment of octroi on such produce in their capacity as owner of the goods, the same would be treated as completion of sale outside the jurisdiction of the market area. The Division Bench of the High Court, therefore, held that the collection of market fees from the respondent- Company by APMC is contrary to the provisions of the Rules, namely, Rule 48, sub-rule (2) of the Rules, which grants exemption to agricultural produce brought from outside into market area by the industrial unit for its own use. On the second issue, the High Court held that the by-product, namely, de-oiled cake contains less than 1% oil and is not notified in the Schedule as per Section 2(i) of the Act and hence, the above product being totally different from oil cake, there is no liability upon the respondent- Company to pay the market fees. Hence, the present Civil Appeals.