N SREERAMA MURTHY Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These three writ petitions call in question the vires of the Andhra Pradesh (Agricultural produce and Livestock) Markets Amendment Ordinance No. 11 of 1980. Subsequent to the filing of these petitions, this Ordinance was replaced by the Andhra Pradesh (Agricultural Produce and Livestock) Markets (Amendment) Act, 1981 (Act 6 of 1981) published in the Andhra Pradesh Gazette dated 30-3-1981. This Act is deemed to have come into force on 2-12-1980, the date on which the Ordinance came into force. From the relief claimed in the writ petitions, it would appear as if the vires of the entire amendment Act is challenged. But during the course of the arguments, the attack was confined to Section 2 of the Amendment Act by which Sub-sections (1) and (2) of Section 5 of the principal Act were amended.

(2.) Sub-sections (1) and (2) of Section 5 of the Act, as they stood prior to the amendment, read as follows :--

(3.) It is contended by Sri Venugopal Reddy, learned counsel who led the arguments in this case and also by Sri Subba Rao, learned counsel who followed, that this amendment is in the teeth of the judgment of this Court declaring the provisions of the principal Act ultra vires and it suffers from the same vice as that of the principal Act which was struck down by this Court. It is pointed out that Sub-sections (1) and (2) of the principal Act in so far as they provide for the election of traders to the market committee and for nomination of the growers of agricultural produce, was violative of Article 14 of the Constitution and in the course of the judgment striking down that provision, the Court had observed:--