P CHANDRAMOULI Vs. GOVERNMENT OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Comprador economic system established in our country by the East India Company and enforced by the might of the British arms and ocerated for the quick and unjust enrichment of the middle-man and his British Principals had impoverished our farmers and exposed them to ever-recurring famines and pestilence. The honest tiller of the soil whom Swift recognized as the 'benefactor of humanity', had been bled white in our country. Protesting against this, the Mahatma in his statement made under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code, to the Ahmedabad Sessions Court in the year 1922. said,

(2.) The State from time to time has been taking steps to alleviate his economic suffering. The Andhra Pradesh (Agricultural Produce and Livestock) Markets Act, 1966 (here in after referred to as 'the Act') is one such measure. Its principal mechanism is to establish regulated markets with a hope to secure remunerative prices to the farmer. It seeks to regulate the purchase and sale of notified agricultural produce,live-stock and products of livestock by establishing markets and securing the best price for the fanner. Under its provision the State Government is competent to notify any area as a notified area within whose boundaries market-yards would be established by a market committee. A market committee would be constituted by the Government as a Body corporate for each notified area. The market committee is the principal legal instrument for the enforcement of the provisions of the Act. It has the powers to establish markets at certain places, provide facilities in that market yard and generally supervise the entire business transactions therein. The market committee has power to levy fees on any notified agricultural produce, livestock or products of livestock the non-payment on which invites pre secution and punishment in a criminal Court. No person can act within a notified areas as a broker or a carting or a clearing agent, ware houseman, weighman, except in accordance with a licence granted by the market committee. Under Rule 54, market committee is empowered to conduct sale of all the notified agricultural produce, livestock or oroducts of livestock brought into the market yard for sale by the method of open auction or tender systems or any other system specified by the bye-laws made by the market committee. The idea is to secure competitive price and prompt payment. Under Rule 57, all the weighment, measurement or counting as the case may be, of the notified agricultural produce, live stock or products of livestock purchased or sold in the market and those under a storage, pressing, or processing or exporting the notified market area shall be conducted under the control of the market committee through licensed weighmen who shall render such accounts therefor as may be specified by the market committee. The authorized officers of the market committee may at any time without notice examine and test any scale, weight or measure used. In addition to the above, Section 7 (6) forbids purchase or sale of any notified agricultural produce, livestock and products of Iviestock in a notified area outside the markets set up by the market committee.

(3.) Now it is clear from the above resume of the several provisions of the Act, that the powers given to the market committee under the Act, are those of a sovereign character and they are capable of being used against the interests of growers and the traders. The prohibition contained in Section 7(6) of the Act directly interferes with and restricts the trader's right to do business and the grower's right to carry on his occupation guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution and compels them to resort to the regulated market mechanism set up by the Act. The power of the market committee to impose monetary burdens and to coerce payment by resorting to the method of prosecution show (he sovereign character of the market committee. In short the market committee is not a voluntary organization. It functions through the State coercive authority and shares in sovereign authority of the State.