PATNA HIGH COURT
Nagendra Rai and D.P.S.Choudhary JJ.
State Of Bihar
Versus
Oswal Chemicals And Fertilizers Limited
Letter Patent Appeal No. 864 of 1999 ;
Decided On : APRIL 2, 2001
AIR 1960 SC 430 (Canst. B.); AIR 1982 SC 33; AIR 1987 SC 748-Relied.
Essential Commodities Act, 1955-Section 5-ln absence of any notification by the Central Government delegating power to the Director of Agriculture or the Registering Authority under Fertiliser (Control) Order, 1985, they have no power to issue an order indicating district wise allocation of the fertilizers to be supplied by the licensee company under ECA quota and other manufacturers for the kharif season as well as the Railway rake points from where the supply has to be made to the different districts-Even if these directions are treated to be regulatory in nature with a view to achieve the object of the Control Order, the same having not been issued by the State Government but by the Registering Authority, cannot be validated. (Paras 22 to 29)
Fertiliser (Control) Order, 1985-Clause 31-A licence cannot be cancelled on the ground of non-compliance of directions given by Registering Authority (not empowered u/s 5, E.C. Act) allocating district wise supply of urea by manufacturer or regarding Railway rake points. (Paras 23 to 27)
1999(2) PLJR 799-Approved.
NAGENDRA RAI, J.
1. The State of Bihar and its officers, namely, the Agriculture Production Commissioner and Director of Agriculture are the appellants and they have filed the present appeal under Clause 10 of the Letters Patent of the Patna High Court against the order dated 22-6-1999 (reported in AIR 2000 Patna 19), passed by a learned single Judge, by which, he has set aside the orders passed by the Registering Authority and the appellate-authority under the provisions of the Fertiliser (Control) Order, 1985 , (hereinafter referred to as the Control Order), cancelling the certificate of registration granted to the respondents to carry on the business of selling fertiliser under E.C.A. quota as wholesale dealer in the State of Bihar.
2. Respondent No.1 is a Company registered under the Companies Act and respondents No.2 and 3 are the Director and employee of the said Company. They filed the writ application for quashing the order dated 29-3-1999 by appellant No.2 the Agriculture Production Commissioner dismissing the appeal against the orders dated 18-1-1999 and 24-2-1999, passed by appellant No.3 Director of Agriculture, appointed as Registering Authority as well as Controller under the Control Order cancelling the Certificate of Registration granted to respondent No.1 to sell the fertilisers as a wholesale dealer in the State of Bihar and the same has been quashed by the learned single Judge as stated above.
3. Respondent-Company has its registered office at Shahajahanpur and it set up a modern plant at Shahajahanpur in the State of Uttar Pradesh. One of the objects of the Company is to manufacture and sell urea fertilizer, for which it has set up a plant at Shahajahanpur itself. The respondent-Company applied for grant of Certificate of Registration for carrying on business in sale of fertilizers in statutory Form A as provided under the Control Order. The Certificate of Registration in Form B was granted on 10-5-1996 by the Registering Authority to deal in fertilizer under the E.C.A. quota as a wholesale dealer in the State of Bihar. The said Certificate of Registration was valid up to 31-3-1999.
4. The Central Government under the provisions of the Control Order fixes the prices of urea and also makes allocation of urea to different States in different seasons. The Central Government is also empowered to issue direction to the manufacturer to sell the fertilisers produced by it in quantity and in such States and within such period as may be specified thereunder. The Respondent-Company was directed to supply 90,000 M.T. of urea to the State of Bihar for the Rabi season 1998-99 i.e. October, 1998 to March, 1999. The Central Government, thereafter, issued different monthly movement orders under the provisions of the Fertiliser (Movement Control) Order, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as the Movement Control Order) for supply of urea by respondent-Company to the State of Bihar. Under Clause 3 of the Movement Control Order, direction was issued directing supply of quantity of urea mentioned therein to the State of Bihar. The movement order for the month October was issued on 30-9-1998. After receipt of such movement order /allocation order, the respondent-Company on 21 -10-1998 submitted a districtwise allocation of urea to the Director of Agriculture-cum-Controller of Fertiliser, who is also the Registering authority against the 90,000 M.T. of Urea fertiliser allocated by the Central Government for the Rabbi season. According to the allocation issued to the respondent-Company, it was intended to make through its dealership network. A copy of the said letter was appended as Annexure-4 to the writ application.
5. The fertilisers were to be moved in bulk from the manufacturing unit and the same were to be brought by Railway at different places and different districts and for that the Railway was requested to provide rakes, consisting of large number of wagons. Shahajanpur is connected with broad gauge and meter gauge. Th
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