A C SHIVE GOWDA Vs. COFFEE BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These four petitions under Art.226 of the Constitution can be disposed of by a common order as the questions arising are common to all of them. The relevant facts, in brief, are as follows : The petitioners are all Coffee Planters and are governed by the provisions of the Coffee Act (Central Act VII of 1942). According to the provisions of Sec.14 of that Act, they had all been recognised as 'registered owners' of 'registered coffee estates'. According to the provisions of the Coffee Act, these owners had to deliver all the coffee produced by them unless a quota had been allotted for internal sales, to the Indian Coffee Market Expansion Board (hereinafter referred to as the Board), which is a body corporate in the name and style of Coffee Board with perpetual succession and a common seal. The Board in accordance with the provisions of the Act. and pursuant to any directions issued by the Central Government in the exercise of the powers conferred by the various provisions of that Act, shall have the exclusive right to sell all the coffee, so delivered. The Board is required under the provisions of that Act to have two kinds of funds, namely, the General Fund and the Pool Fund.

(2.) The General Fund is made up of all the amounts paid by the Central Govt. from out of the amounts colleced as duties of customs and excise and any sum transferred out of the surplus remaining from the Pool Fund. This fund can be utilised by the Board only for certain specific purposes and the registered owners have no manner of claim over it. The Pool Fund, on the other hand, is almost exclusively made up of the proceeds of the sale of coffee from the surplus pool. It is specifically enjoined by the Act that such fund shall be utilised for making payments to the registered owners proportionate to the value of coffee delivered by them for inclusion in the surplus pool and to meet the cost of curing, storing and marketing of coffee and administering the surplus pool. It can also be utilised for the purchase of coffee not delivered to the surplus pool.

(3.) It is also provided in the Coffee Act that the registered owners shall have no manner of right over the coffee delivered to the Board and the latter shall have the right to make only such payments out of the Pool Fund to the registered owners as it thinks proper and in the proportion prescribed under S.34 of that Act. S.42 of that Act has made provision for control and supervision by the Cenral Government in respect of all acts of the Board.