1. The Petitioner herein is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 running a sugar factory at Sadashivnagar, Hamidwada-Koulage, Taluka Kagal, District Kolhapur.

In this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the Petitioner has challenged the order dated 2 July 2011 of the Commissioner of Sugar, Maharashtra State for granting the Aerial Distance Certificate under Clause 6-B of Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966 in favour of Respondent no. 5 for the purpose of setting up a new sugar factory between village Dhamane and Village Belewadi Kalamma in Kagal Taluka of Kolhapur District. The Petitioner has also challenged the consequential aerial distance certificate issued by the Commissioner of Sugar, Maharashtra State, in favour of Respondent no. 5. On 2 July 2011, Clause 6-A of the above Order of 1966, prohibited any new sugar factory being set up within a radius of 15 kilometers from an existing sugar factory. The distance between the sugar factory of Respondent no. 5 from the Petitioner's factory is 17.2 kilometers.

2. The only ground on which the impugned certificate dated 2 July 2011 is challenged is that by a Notification dated 3 December 2011, the Government of Maharashtra has increased the aerial distance between an existing sugar factory and a proposed new sugar factory from 15 kilometers to 25 kilometers, and that the said Notification dated 3 December 2011 applies retrospectively so as to make the order dated 2 July 2011 vulnerable to challenge. The Petitioner has further contended that while passing the impugned order, the Commissioner of Sugar should not have merely looked at the aerial distance between the existing sugar factory of the Petitioner and the proposed sugar factory of Respondent no. 5, but the Commissioner ought to have considered other relevant factors like availability of sugar cane as sufficient raw material for the sugar factory, demand for the sugar cane for the existing sugar factory, availability of water resources, demand of bagasse for co-generation project etc.

3. When the petition was filed on 10 December 2012, the only interim relief prayed for by the Petitioner was to restrain Respondent no. 5 from carrying out any sort of construction on Gat No. 466, Village Belewadi Kalamma or any other adjacent land for setting up the new sugar factory.

4. At the preliminary hearing of the writ petition on 14 March 2014, another Division Bench of this Court issued notice to the Respondents and made it returnable on 18 April 2013 but no ad-interim relief was granted. Thereafter, the matter was listed before the Court from time to time but no ad-interim or interim relief was granted in favour of the Petitioner or against Respondent no. 5 till October, 2014. On 16 January 2014, however, the Petitioner had filed Civil Application No. 178 of 2014 praying for an interim injunction to restrain the Respondent no. 5 from carrying out any construction activities on Gat No. 466, Belewadi Kalamma, Taluka Kagal, District Kolhapur.

5. Affidavit-in-reply on behalf of Respondent no. 5 sugar factory was filed on 3 July 2014 pointing out with photographs that the construction of the sugar factory building at site started on 14 November 2011 and the construction of the sugar factory was completed in right earnest. It was also pointed out that the Respondent no. 5 had applied for registration under the provisions of various Central and State Enactments and that the Petitioner was already granted registration certificates under Central Excise Act, Central Sales Tax Act, Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act and that the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) by an order dated 10 December 2013 issued consent to Respondent no. 5 to establish a sugar factory at the site at Belewadi Kalamma, Taluka Kagal, District Kolhapur. Respondent no. 5 also stated that it had obtained various other necessary permissions required for setting up of the sugar factory and that Respondent no. 5 had also entered int