Hemant Gupta, J.

Challenge in the present writ petition is to the action of the respondents restricting the allotment of the paddy for the year 2015-16 on the ground that arbitration proceedings are pending under Section 34 of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1995 (for short 'the Act') against the petitioner.

2. The petitioner has installed a rice sheller at Village Mehtabgarh, Quila Raipur, District Ludhiana with a capacity of 8.69 ton. The petitioner is stated be doing the work of custom milling satisfactorily for the last many years without any default except default in the year 2009-10, which is pending adjudication before the learned Additional District Judge, Chandigarh.

3. It is pointed out that food-grains are procured by State Agencies/Instrumentalities and that Punjab State is major contributing State of rice in the central pool. The handling of food-grains stock is major responsibility of the Punjab Government. Every year, the State Government frames a policy called Custom Milling Policy. Such Policy for the year 2015 is appended with the writ petition as Annexure P-1. The said Policy defines 'defaulter' in Clause 3(xv), whereas Clause 11 of the said Policy des