DEVYANI PHOSPHATE PRIVATE LIMITED Vs. UOI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These writ petitions involve a common issue, which is: Is the provision in the Office Memorandums (OMs) issued by the respondents from time to time, requiring the petitioners (and those who are similarly placed), to achieve a minimum benchmark qua production of Single Super Sulphate Fertilizer (in short SSP) unreasonable and/or arbitrary?

(2.) The challenge is difficult, and is therefore decidedly, an uphill task for the petitioners, as it ventures into an area which relates to policy making. The grounds for challenge are usual, that is, the policy in vogue is arbitrary, unfair and unreasonable. Article 14 of the Constitution of India has therefore been invoked by the petitioner, while laying a challenge to the policy evolved by the respondents.

(3.) Therefore, while the issue is short, one would have to touch upon the OMs issued by the respondents from time to time in order to give a sense of how the policy has evolved, though the impugned clause which relates to the minimum bench mark for production by industrial units, such as those operated by the petitioners, has continued to be in existence to the detriment of the manufacturers.