P. A. CHOUDHARY, J.

( 1 ) IN exercise of his powers under Ss. 395 and 482 of the Criminal P. C. the Special Judge appointed for trial of cases under the Essential Commodities Act referred the above matters to this Court raising the question as to the validity of G. O. Ms. No. 610, Food and Agriculture (C. S. III) Department, dt. 2 3/11/1984. G. O. Ms. No. 610 is an order made by the State Government under the Essential Commodities Act whereby all Two Star and above Two Star Hotels and also those hotels which are approved by the Tourism Department of Government of India for awarding Two Star and above Two star Hotels status are exempted from the purview of the Andhra Pradesh Catering Establishments (Fixation and Display of Prices of Food Stuffs) Order, 1978. The effect of G. O. Ms. No. 610 is to make the Andhra Pradesh Catering Establishments Order applicable only to the hotels which are below Two Star status. The accused in these cases are such hoteliers.

( 2 ) THE accused in these cases were charged with violating the directions contained in Clauses 1, 2 and 6 (b) of the above G. O. Ms. No. 610. They were being tried under S. 7 of the essential Commodities Act, 1955. They have obje

Click Here to Read the rest of this document