( 1 ) ALL these petitions raise common question of law and fact and had been referred to this Bench by a Single judge of this Court vide his order of reference dated 12. 9. 2002. The facts as averred in Criminal Petition No. 5302 of 2000 shall be taken for reference.

( 2 ) THE petitioner submitted that the 1st respondent filed a complaint in STC no. 101 of 1998 before the Additional Munsif magistrate, Guntur under Sections 7, 23 and 25 (2) of the A. P. Agricultural (Produce and Livestock) Markets Act, 1966 (hereinafter referred to as the Act ). The case of the 1st respondent was that the petitioner was doing business in onions, which was a notified agricultural commodity in the notified area, without obtaining a licence from the 1st respondent-Market committee as was required under the provisions of the Act. The filing of complaint was termed as gross abuse of process of law and was sought to be quashed on the ground that in terms of G. O. Rt. No. 997 dated 4. 4. 1979, onion was omitted from the applicability of the provisions of the Act. Therefore running a business in onions without obtaining licence from Market committee would not be an offence under the Act. Secondly, it was contended that the Market Committee could not have instituted a complaint without obtaining a sanction as contemplated under Rule 46 of a. P. Agricultural (Produce and Livestock) market Rules. It was also contended that the complaint had been filed in violation of the order passed by this Court in Writ petition No. 35394 of 1997. It was also contended that the complaint was barred in terms of Section 468 of the Criminal procedure Code.

( 3 ) THE respondents filed the counter through the Secretary, Agricultural Market committee, Guntur. He submitted that the market Committee was constituted under the provisions of the Act and the commodity onion was one of the notified agricultural products in respect of the Market Committee of Guntur. The Government had issued g. O. Rt. No. 997 on 4. 4. 1979 de-notifying the onion from the respondent-Market committee. Subsequently, the Government issued another G. O. being G. O. Ms. No. 286, dated 5. 7. 1994, notifying all the commodities which are specified in Schedule-II annexed to it, to all the Agricultural Market committees and by virtue of said G. O. Ms. No. 286, dated 5. 7. 1994, the onions were brought again under the notified commodities list with effect from 5. 7. 1994. It is further contended that under Section 7 of the Act, the person who transacts the business of purchase and sale of notified produce, has to obtain a licence and he has to comply with the conditions of the licence and in terms of Section 23, the transaction of business of notified commodity without licence is an offence. When the matter came up before the learned Single Judge, he thought it proper to refer the matter to the Division Bench and according to the learned Single Judge, the G. O. Ms. No. 286 dated 5. 7. 1994 was issued without following the procedure under Section 3 of the Act. Therefore, the learned Single Judge wanted this Bench to decide whether G. O. Ms. No. 286, dated 5. 7. 1994 could be implemented or not.

( 4 ) NOW before going to that question, the scheme under the Act will have to be gone into. It appears that there is some confusion with regard to the scope of section 3 of the Act which has led to making of this reference. Agricultural produce 287 has been defined in sub-section (i) of section 2 as: "anything produced from land in the course of agriculture or horticulture and includes forest produce or any produce of like nature either processed or unprocessed and declared by the Government by notification to be agricultural produce for the purposes of this Act. Market under sub-section (vi) of Section 2 means: "a market established under sub-section (3) of Section 4 and includes market yard and any building therein. " notification under sub-section (ix) of section 2 means: "a notification published in