JUDGMENT

S. Saghir Ahmad, J.-Leave granted.

2. Agricultural Market Committee (for short, for Committee ) which is the appellant before us is a statutory body created under the Andhra Pradesh (Agricultural Produce and Livestock) Markets Act, 1966 ( the Act ) while the respondent is a licenced trader dealing in "Copra (dried coconut Kernel) which it imports from various places in the State of Kerala for manufacturing coconut oil.

3. "Copra" is a notified agricultural produce and, therefore, the Committee has a right to levy and realise the market fee on all transactions of purchase and sale provided the transactions take place within the notified area of the Committee.

4. By orders dated 2.3.89 and 28.3.89, the Assessing Authority who is also the Secretary of the Committee levied the market fee on the respondent who challenged those orders in appeals (No. 1 of 1989 and No. 2 of 1989), filed under Section 12E but the appeals were dismissed on the technical ground of non-compliance with Section 12E(2) under which the whole amount of market fee had to be deposited before filing the appeal.

5. The respondent then approached the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Writ Petition 12199 of 1991 wh