KRISHAN KUMAR Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Through the present writ petition filed under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India, the writ petitioner has made following prayers:-

(2.) The writ petitioner claims to be the owner of three Rice Mill ( Processing unit set to de-husk paddy into rice), namely (i) Surya Agro Foods, Baghapurana, (ii) Keshav Agro Foods, Baghapurana and (iii) Akshat Agro Foods, Baghapurana.

(3.) The writ petitioner submits that the aforesaid three rice mills have been allotted paddy for custom milling as per Punjab Custom Milling Policy for Paddy -Kharif 2019-2020 (hereinafter referred to as "the Policy"). At this stage, it would be appropriate to explain as to what does the term "custom milling" denote. Certain government agencies/public sector undertakings purchase paddy from the farmers as per the policy of the Government. The aforesaid paddy, so purchased, is then allotted to various rice mills for de-husking so as to take out rice from the paddy. In order to regulate the process of de-husking through various privately owned rice mills, a Policy is framed by the State of Punjab every year. The term "custom milling" means the process of getting the government paddy de-husked from privately owned rice mills on job work. For de-husking the government paddy, these rice mills are paid certain charges as agreed to. In other words, the paddy owned by the government agencies or public sector undertakings is got processed by allocating it for a job work to the privately owned rice mills. The allocation of the paddy is governed by contracts entered into between the parties i.e. government agencies/public sector undertakings on the one hand and the private rice millers on the other hand. The Policy or the contracts entered into with the Rice Mill owners are not statutory. The Policy notified each year contains standard clauses of the contract.