Aftab Alam, J.

1. There are nine petitioners in C.W.J.C. No. 7582 of 2004. Petitioner No. 1 is the Association of Sugar Mills of which petitioners 2 to 9, the eight individual sugar mills, are members. C.W.J.C. No. 8088 of 2004 is filed at the instance of a single sugar mill. All the petitioners in the two writ petitions seek to challenge the rate of transport rebate and the conditions attached for availing the rebate as fixed by the Central Government vide Order No. GSR 203 (E)/ Ess.Com/Sugarcane published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, dated March 22, 2004 (A copy of the Gazette notification is at Annexure-1 to C.W.J.C. No. 7582 of 2004). The impugned order allowed the sugar mills in Bihar (as well as in three other States) to deduct from the price paid for the sugarcane, transport rebate @ 28 paise per quintal per kilometre, subject to a maximum of Rs. 5.83 per quintal. However, a proviso to the order added the condition that the rebate would be allowed only to those sugar mills that made timely payments of cane price and cleared all arrears of cane payment dues, together with due interest as per Clause 3 of the Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966 .

2. The petitioners make the grievance that the transport rebate is fixed at a rate that is too low and inadequate and the conditions attached for availing it is quite illegal, restrictive and unreasonable.

3. In order to examine the petitioners claim in its proper perspective it would be necessary to refer to certain provisions of the Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966 (made u/s. 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 (Act 10 of 1955) and the Bihar Sugarcane (Regulation of Supply and Purchase) Act, 1981 and the Rules framed thereunder along with some recent amendments introduced in some of those provisions as a result of the direction(s) given by the Court when the petitioners earlier came before it. Clause 3 of the Sugar Control Order, 1966 (hereinafter referred to as the Central Order) empowers the Central Government to fix the minimum price of Sugarcane to be paid by producer of sugar. The clause, in so far as relevant for the present, is reproduced below :

3. Minimum price of sugarcane payable by producer of sugar : (1) The Central Government may, after consultation with such authorities, bodies or associations as it may deem fit, by notification in the Official Gazette, from time to time, fix the minimum price of sugarcane to be paid by producers of sugar or their agents for the sugarcane purchased by them, having regard to -- (a) the cost of production of sugarcane; (b) the return to the grower from alternative crops and the general trend of prices of agricultural commodities; (c) the availability of sugar to the consumer at a fair price; (d) the price at which sugar produced from sugarcane is sold by producers of sugar; and (e) the recovery of sugar from sugarcane : Provided xxx xxx xxx Explanation -- (1) xxx xxx xxx.

(2) No person shall sell or agree to sell sugarcane to a producer of sugar or his agent, and no such producer or agent shall purchase or agree to purchase sugarcane, at a price lower than that fixed under Sub-clause (1).

(3) to (7) xxx xxx xxx xxx

4. By an amendment made on 24-9-1976 Clause 3A was introduced in the order allowing for certain rebates, including transport rebate, from the minimum price of sugarcane fixed under Clause 3. Clause 3-A as it stood at the time of its introduction, insofar as relevant for the present, is as follows :

3A. Rebate that can be deducted from the price paid for sugarcane. A producer of sugar or his agent shall pay, for the sugarcane purchased by him, to the sugarcane grower or the sugarcane growers co-operative society, either the minimum price of sugarcane fixed under Clause 3, or the price agreed to between the producer or his agent and the sugarcane grower or the sugarcane growers co-operative society, as the case may be (hereinafter referred to as the agreed price): Provided that -- (i) in the case of sugar