JUDGMENT

KRISHNA IYER, J.:—We should have made short shrift of this batch of appeals on the brief but fatal ground that the appellants - all sugar millers who had over-priced this essential consumer article and had failed in their challenge of the controlled price - had no moral nor legal claim to keep the huge sums which the High Court had rightly directed them to disgorge. When the price of levy sugar was pegged down by the State, these factory owners rushed to the Court impeaching the validity of the control and secured a stay of operation of the order. Under cover of the Court s stay order which was granted, on bank guarantee for the excess price being furnished to the Court, the appellants sold sugar at free market rates - a euphemism for black-market racket - unfortunately, with judicial sanction. Crores of rupees were admittedly funnelled into the millers tills. But, eventually, the High Court upheld the control of price and the unhappy obligation to restore the unjust enrichment arose. The High Court, whose process kept the control price in cold storage, had to do justice by the community of consumers who were the unwitting victims of this judiciary declared holiday from