JUDGMENT :

1. Leave granted.

2. These appeals have arisen from an order dated 21.10.2013 passed by a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court whereby a batch of letters-patent appeals filed by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) challenging a learned Single Judge's order of 15.03.2012 was dismissed.

3. The primary issue before the High Court was whether or not the respondents, who had taken over on leasehold basis certain blacklisted rice mills, were entitled to allocation of paddy for custom milling.

Facts:

4. It was common practice in Punjab for different government agencies to allocate paddy for custom milling to hundreds of rice mills, which in turn would supply the rice, post milling as per approved specifications, to the appellant-FCI. Such allocation would take place through terms of a bipartite agreement and the same took place for the Kharif Marketing Season of 2004-05 (hereinafter, "KMS") also.

5. A dispute arose as to the quality of the milled rice stock for the aforementioned KMS, leading to an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Finding the quality to be defective, the CBI initiated prosecution against numerous rice millers and additionally