Judgment

K. N. WANCHOO J.: This petition under Art. 32 of the Constitution challenges the legality of the notification dated July 30, 1958, (hereinafter called the impugned notification), issued by the Government of India fixing the ex-factory price per maund of sugar produced in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and North Bihar. It has been supported by two sets of interveners consisting of sugar factories in these areas who did not join the petition.

2. The case of the petitioners is that the Essential Commodities Act, (X of 1955), (hereinafter called the Act) was passed by Parliament in 1955, for the control of the production, supply and distribution of, and trade and commerce in, certain commodities which included sugar. By S. 3 of the Act, the Central Government was given the power, if it was of opinion that it was necessary or expedient so to do for maintaining or increasing supplies of any essential commodity or for securing their equitable distribution and availability at fair prices, to provide by order for regulating or prohibiting the production, supply and distribution thereof and trade and commerce therein. Section 3(2) further provided inter alia for controlling the price at which