H.N. SUNDRESH Vs. STATE OF M.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) H .N. Sundresh has filed this petition under Arts. 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, against the Government of M. P. and President of M. P. Laghu Vanopaj (Vyapar and Vikas) Sahakari Sangh Maryadit, Bhopal. The petition has been filed in public interest. It is a common ground that the M. P. Tendu Patta (Vyapar Viniyam) Adhiniyam, 1964 was passed resulting in creation of State monopoly in the trade of tendu patta, and the sale etc. of tendu leaves was regulated by the provisions made in the said Adhiniyam. A provision was also made for constitution of an Advisory Committee for each year to advice the Government in the matter of fixation of fair and reasonable price of tendu leaves and on other various matters. Such an advisory Committee was also constituted for the year 1989 under Section 6 of the Adhiniyam. The Gazette notification issued be the Government in this behalf in Annexure -R. 1.

(2.) THE grievance of the Petitioner is that Co -operative Societies have been constituted for the collection of tendu leaves, but the job of collection of tendu leaves being only of thirty days there will be no work for the members of the Society for the remaining eleven months. The rates fixed by the Government for different areas are also different. As such the policy of the Government is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. The new policy of collection of tendu leaves does not take into consideration the difficulties of the poor people smoking bidis, as there is no provision for fixing the price of the bidis in the market. Under the new tendu patta policy the share capital of 39,400 members for formation of Co -operative Societies was paid by the Respondent No. 2, but when now it has been decided to increase 200 members in each of the Society, a condition has been imposed to purchase share of Rs. 10/ - by each of the members. Therefore, this policy is also against the principles of equality and as such violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.

(3.) THE main contention of the Petitioner appears to be that in the M.P. Tendu Patta Amendment Ordinance of 1988 a new S. 12 (a) has been inserted, whereby the resale of the tendu patta has been prohibited without the permission of the Government. Still Respondent No. 2 has invited tenders from the traders dealing in tendu leaves asking them to give advance tenders for the purchase of tendu leaves without ascertaining the actual produce, quality and the amount which the State can earn from the sale of the leaves. This has been done with a view to make advance amount of Rs. 42 crores to meet the expenses. But this is against the interest of the Government, labourers and the public in general. The experienced workers are not available to the Respondents and that is why it is incurring losses and there is a great mismanagement of the working of the Respondent No. 2. It has also been alleged that due to the mismanagement and corruption in the trade of tendu leaves and purchase of hession clothes etc. the Government is put to a loss of crores of rupees.