ROYAL COFFEE WORKS Vs. COFFEE BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Parties are agreed that O.P.No. 4512 of 1987, in which the pleadings are complete on both sides, may be taken as the representative case, and the decision therein applied to the other cases. I shall therefore state the facts in O.P.No. 4512 of 1987.

(2.) The pleadings in this case consist of the original petition, a reply affidavit dated August 8, 1987 and an additional reply affidavit dated February 7,1988 on the side of the petitioner, and a counter affidavit dated June 12,1987 and an additional counter affidavit dated August 23,1987 on the side of the respondents.

(3.) The petitioner is a dealer engaged in buying coffee seeds, and selling coffee powder. The first respondent is the Coffee Board, which is a statutory authority constituted under S.4 of the Coffee Act VII of 1942, hereinafter referred to as 'the Act' for brevity. The Act was one to provide for the development of the coffee industry, under the control of the Union. The first respondent Board was constituted to achieve that object. Coffee cultivation is carried on in India in the States of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Every owner of land planted with coffee plants, has to get himself registered as an owner in respect of his estate, with the registering officer appointed in that behalf by the State Government (vide S.14). S.28 requires every establishment for curing coffee to obtain a licence from the Board to operate as such. The control of the sale, export and re-import of coffee is regulated by the provisions contained in S.16 to 26 of the Act. S.16 enables the Central Government by notification in the official gazette, to fix the price or prices at which coffee may be sold, wholesale or retail, in the Indian market. No registered owner or licensed cures or dealer shall sell coffee, wholesale or retail, in the market at a price higher than that fixed under the section. S.17 provides that no registered owner shall sell or contract to sell in the Indian Market, coffee from any registered estate, if by such sale, the internal sale quota allotted to that estate is exceeded. He shall also not sell in the Indian market any coffee through a licensed curing establishment. Sub-section(1) of S.25 requires all coffee produced by a registered estate in excess of the internal sale quota allotted to that or in the absence of an internal sale quota, all the coffee produced in the estate, to the delivered to the Board for inclusion in the surplus pool, by the owner of the estate or by the curing establishment receiving the coffee from the estate. The proviso to the section enables the Chairman of the Board to allow the owner of the estate to retain with himself for purposes of consumption by his family, and for purposes of seed, such quantity of coffee as the Chairman may think reasonable. Sub-section (2) of the section deals with the manner in which the delivery is to be made. Sub-section (3) states that the coffee delivered for inclusion in the surplus pool shall upon delivery to the Board remain under the control of the Board, which shall be responsible for the storage, curing, where necessary, and marketing of the coffee. Sub-section (4) requires the Board to prepare a differential scale for the valuation of coffee, and to classify the coffee in each consignment in accordance with that scale, and to make an assessment of its value based on its quantity, kind and quality. S.26 directs the Board to take all practical measures to market the coffee included in the surplus pool, and provide that all sales thereof shall be conducted by or through the Board. The Board may also purchase for inclusion in the surplus pool coffee not delivered for inclusion in it.