JIYAJEERAO COTTON MILLS LTD. AND OTHERS Vs. DEPUTY SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, MINISTRY OF LAW, JUSTICE AND COMPANY AFFAIRS, AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The writ petition h as been instituted by three petitioners. The first petitioner is a public limited company which carries on the business, inter alia, of manufacturing textiles and Chemicals and the second and third petitioners are shareholders of the first petitioner. The first petitioner is hereinafter referred to as the company. Originally, the petitioner company appears to have been engaged only in the business of manufacturing textiles at its factory in Gwalior, but in 1955, it obtained an industrial license for setting up a Chemical plant under the provision of the Industries Development and Regulation Act,1951. This plant was to manufacture soda ash to the extent of 66,000 tonnes per annum and caustic soda to the extent of 23,400 tonnes per annum. This plant went into production in December, 1959.

(2.) Under the provisions of the said Act, the Chemical plant was expanded from time to time till 1972 when its licensed capacity was 1,68,000 tonnes per annum of soda ash, 20,400 tonnes per annum of caustic soda and 10,800 tonnes per year of refined sodium bi -carbonate. According to the petitioner, there are or there were at the relevant time only three other manufacturers of soda ash in the country, i.e. Tata Chemicals Ltd., Dharangdhara Chemical Ltd. and Sahu Chemicals. According to the petitioner's details of production set out in the petition as annexures, the company's production was less than one -third of the total quantity of soda ash produced in India.

(3.) In June, 1970, the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969, came into force. As there was some doubt as to whether the company was covered by the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, there was some exchange of correspondence between the company and the Government authorities. Eventually, on December 7, 1970, the Company was registered under Sec. 26(2) of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act as being a company to which Part A of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act applied.