Very Important Point
Where Maharashtra Sugar Factories (Reservation of Areas and Regulation of Crushing and Sugarcane Supply) (Amend­ment) Order, 1997 amending Maharashtra Sugar Factories (Reservation of Areas and Regulation of Crushing and Sugarcane Supply) Order, 1984 was passed by State Govern­ment in exercise of power conferred by Clause 6(1) of Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966 r/w. Notification of Central Government dated 16.7.1966 and was based on the recommendations of the Expert Committee appointed by the State Government and it was neither inconsistent with Clause 6(2) of Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966 nor discriminated any factory owners, it cannot be held that the Amendment Order of 1997 is illegal or unreasonable or State Government acted arbitrarily in amending the Order of 1984 as it was not shown to be vitiated by malafides but it ensured better sugarcane price to farmers who were not members of any co-operative sugar factory.

Judgment

Srinivasan, J.-Leave granted.

The appellants are aggrieved by the dismissal of their writ petitions by the High Court of Bombay in which the appellants had challenged the validity of the Maharashtra Sugar Factories (Reservation of Areas and Regulation of Crushing and Sugarcane Supply) (Amendment) Order, 1997. This order was passed in exercise of the powers conferred by Para­graphs (a), (c) and (f) of sub-cl. (1) of Clause 6 and sub-cl. (a) of Clause 9 of the Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966 read with Notification of Government of India, Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Community Development and Corporation (Department of Food), No. GSR. 1127/ESS. Com. Sugarcane, dated 16th July, 1966.

2. Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966 was passed by the Govt. of India under Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. Clause 6(a), (c) and (f) thereof reads as follows:

“(a) reserve any area where sugarcane is grown (hereinafter in this clause referred to as reserved area) for a factory having regard to the crushing capacity of the factory, the availability of sugarcane in the reserved area and the need for production of sugar, with a view the enabling the factory to purchase the quantity of sugarcane re­quired by it;

(b) .........

(c) fix, with respect to any specified sugarcane growers or sugarcane growers generally in reserved area, the quantity or percent­age of su­garcane grown by such grower or growers as the case may be, which such each grower by himself or, if he is a member of a coopera­tive society of sugarcane growers operating in the reserved area, through such society, shall supply to the factory concerned:

(d) .............

(e) .............

(f) prohibit or restrict or otherwise regulate the export of sugarcane from any area including a reserved area) except under and in accordance with a permit issued in this behalf.”

Clause 11 of the said Order enables the Central Government to direct by Notification in official gazette that powers conferred upon it by that order shall be exercisable also by any officer or authority of the Central Government or a State Government or any officer or author­ity of the State Government subject to such restrictions, exceptions, conditions, if any, as may be specified in the direction. In exercise of the said power under clause 11, the Central Government issued a Notification dated 16th July, 1966 in the following terms:

“Notification

New Delhi, the 16th July, 1966

G.S.R. 1127/Ess. Com./Sugarcane:- In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (11) of the Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966 and in superses­sion of the notification of the Government of India in the late Minis­try of Food and Agriculture (Department of Food) No. G.S.R. 263/Ess. Com./Sugarcane dated the 20th February, 1964 the Central Government hereby directs that powers conferred on it by clauses 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the said Order shall be exercisable also by the State Governments of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Maharashtra, Mysore, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and the Lieutenant Governor of Pondicherry within their or, as the case may be, his respective jurisdiction.

(No. 2(6)/66-S. Py)

K.L. Pasricha, Jt. Secy.”

3. Thus the power conferred on the Central Government by Clause 6 of the Sugar (Control) Order, 1966 was exercisable also by the State Governments mentioned in the aforesaid Notification which included the State of Maharashtra. In 1984, the State Government passed the Maha­rashtra Sugar Factories (Reservation of Areas and Regulation of Crush­ing & Sugarcane Supply) Order, 1984. The necessity for passing the said order was set out in detail in the preamble to the order itself. It is unnecessary to reproduce the same here.

4. Clause 2(1) of the said order defines a ‘reserved area’ as the area reserved for factory as specified in the sched