IMPORTANT POINT
Ready to serve beverages named Frooti and Appy , (the products of mango and apple) are not agricultural produce falling under Section 2(1)(a) of the Bihar Agricultural Produce Market Act so as to attract market fee.

JUDGMENT

V.N. Khare, J.-The appellant herein is a company registered under the Indian Companies Act and has its head office and factory outside the State of Bihar. The company manufactures fruit drinks and markets it under the brand name of Frooti and Appy in the State of Bihar through its agents. The Bihar Legislature has enacted an Act known as Bihar Agricultural Produce Market Act, 1960 (hereinafter referred to as the Act ). The object of the Act is to provide better regulation of buying and selling of agricultural produce and the arrangement of market for agricultural produce in the State of Bihar. Under Section 27 of the Act, the Market Committee set up under the Act has power to levy and collect market fee on the agricultural produce, which are specified in the Schedule and are bought or sold in the market area. It is not disputed that the entire district of Patna is declared as a market area. Section 2(1)(a) of the Act defines agricultural produce which runs as under:

" `Agricultural produce means all produce whether processed or non-processed, manufactured or not, of Agriculture, Horticulture, Plantation, animal Husbandry, Forest, Sericulture, Pisciculture, and includes livestock or poultry as specified in the Schedule."

2. Under Section 39 of the Act, the State Government by a notification is empowered to add, amend, or cancel any of the items of the agricultural produce in the Schedule as required by Section 2(1)(a) of the Act. In the Schedule, as contemplated under Section 2(1)(a), mango and apple are specified under the caption fruits as items No. 1 and 13 respectively. The respondents treating Frooti and Appy as mango and apple products, issued a notice dated 28.3.89, requiring the appellant to pay market fee on the products marketed under the brand name Frooti and Appy , failing which action under the Act would be taken. Under such circumstances, the appellant challenged the aforesaid demand by means of a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution. However, the said writ petition was dismissed and Letters Patent Appeal filed against the judgment of the learned Single Judge was also dismissed. It is in this way the appellant is in appeal before us.

3. The short question that arises for consideration in this case is, whether the products which are ready to serve beverages under the brand name Frooti and Appy fall under the description of mango and apple, specified in the Schedule. The contention of the learned counsel for the appellant is that, both the fruit drinks are not covered by the Schedule, whereas the contention of the respondents counsel is that the products being the mango and apple juices are covered under the item mango and apple , as specified in the Schedule.

4. The appellant has described the manufacturing process of beverages Frooti and Appy as under:

"Frooti and Appy are fruit drinks and manufacturing process of both are cumbersome. It is alleged that one of the ingredients of Frooti is mango pulp and not mango which is procured by the appellant company as raw material from outside agencies. Similarly, one of the ingredients of Appy is apple concentrate and not apple. The pulp is first passed through a filter and stored in beverage tank. Similarly sugar in proportionate quantity is processed in the form of syrup after heating it to a certain temperature and then cooling it. Demineralised water is then added to the sugar syrup to the extent that it attains a certain `brix content. Meanwhile in the beverage tank requisite amount of citric acid, non-alcoholic beverage base (NABB), other permitted additives, sodium citrate, vitamin C are added. Thereafter the sugar syrup and the mixture in the beverage tank are mixed in proportionate quantity. Thereafter the said mixture is passed through homogeniser and crushed at a very high pressure to disintegrate all the fibres, which are present in the beverage mixture. After homogenisation, the mixture is then required to be pas