SUGAR MILLS Vs. STATE TRADING CORPORATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) . J.

(2.) THIS will dispose of 155 cases bearing Nos. 895-A to 1049-A of 1981. They involve common questions of fact and law, and have been, therefore, taken together. The State Trading Corporation of lndia is the objector in all these cases. The claimants are different sugar mills, spread all over India. Common arguments have been addressed.

(3.) IT was as such that the STC contends that it could not lift the entire quantity contracted from the sugar mills. The sugar mills however in spite of the delivery date having already expired on 31-5-1977. when the domestic prices were around Rs. 400 per quintal, continued to hold the stock, and when the prices were falling in JuneJuly 1978 decided to issue notice to STC stating that they would have no alternative but to dispose of sugar in the market and claim damages from the STC. Thereafter they claimed to dispose of sugar locally on different dates and sought to saddle the STC with consequential losses and interest thereon. These were disowned by the STC and as such the disputs and differences were referred to the arbitration of Mr. Justice V. Bhargava, a retired Judge of the Supreme Court under the arbitration clause existing in those contracts.