By the Court.—These proceedings in the public interest seeking a direction to the State Government for ensuring the realisation of cane dues payable by sugar mills in the State of Uttar Pradesh to cane growers, comprising of the cane price and interest for crushing season 2013-14, were entertained by this Court on 30 May 2014 when interim directions were issued for the first time.

2. The legal basis of the petition was an alleged : (i) breach by the sugar mills of the statutory obligation under the U.P. Sugarcane (Regulation of Supply and Purchase) Act, 1953 (the Act) of paying over sugarcane dues to the cane growers; and (ii) failure of the State Government to initiate steps for recovery of the dues in accordance with law. The petition is founded on a breach of a legal duty cast upon the State by the state legislation to ensure the payment of the cane price and interest to farmers and upon the corresponding obligation which is cast upon the sugar mills which entered into statutory agreements under the U.P. Sugarcane Supply and Purchase Order, 1954 (the 1954 Order) for the purchase of sugarcane from assigned areas. This legal basis in the proceedings is compounded by the hu