( 1 ) IDENTICAL questions are involved in these batches of appeals and so they were heard together and are disposed of by a common judgment.

( 2 ) THE claim in all those cases is for the refund of amounts collected by the Government from the rice millers in the Districts of East Godavari. West Godavari and Krishna, who were licensees under the Food Procurement Order, authorised to procure rice and paddy from, the producers to sell them in the market at prices fixed by the Government. The difference between the prices at which they were purchased and the prices at which they were directed to be sold was asked to be made over to the Government. The various millers made over the difference in compliance with the order of the Government and later on filed suits for the recovery of those amounts on the ground that they alone were entitled to the difference in the price and the Government was not entitled to recover the same from them. These transactions relate to a period when immediately after the war, food stuffs had to be controlled for the proper and even distribution of food throughout India. It necessitated the Government to have resort to passing Control Orders thereby restrictin

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