TMI Blog1982 (3) TMI 267X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 8, 3492-3504,3505-15, 3516,3517-34,3560, 3572-79, 3637, 3693- 3730, 3732-36, 3757-75, 3899-3912,4053-69,4192-4229, 4261,4329, 4495, 4496-4508,4606-09, 4617-21,4622-69, 4846- 75, 4978-86, 5218,5349, 5533-43, 5597-5609, 5623, 5626-42, 5728, 5746, 6577-81, 6814, 6934-42,7203, ,217-20,7409,7454- 56,7484, 7641,7659,7773,7943, 7944, 8084,8089, 8090, 8192,8195, 8201, 8431, 8436, 8834, 8862, 8878-81, 8924 MISRA, R.B. AND FAZALALI, SYED MURTAZA, JJ. Shanti Bhushan, V.M. Tarkunde, P.A. Francis and G.N. Dikshit, R.K. Jain, P.B. Jain, Pankaj Kaira, S. Mittar, M.G. Gupta, J B.R. Kapoor, Miss, Bhajan Ram Rakhyani, S.R. Srivastava, B.V. Tawakley, Shobha Dikshit, B. Dutta, B.D. Sharma, Miss A. Subhashini, N.N. Sharma, T.C Sharma, A. Ghosh, S.V. Tambwekar and Girish Chandra for the appearing parties. JUDGMENT MISRA J. 1. In exercise of powers conferred by Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, Sugar Control Order 1966 was issued by the Government of India, Ministry of Agriculture. Clause 5 of that Order empowered the Central Government to issue directions, inter alia, to recognised dealers regarding production, maintenance of stock, storage, sale, grading, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ve been singled out for hostile treatment from other dealers of sugar at Calcutta, (b) the impugned order is unreasonable and impracticable. 4. Shri Shanti Bhushan, senior counsel appearing in one of the petitions viz., Writ Petition No. 3846 of 1981, took up the first point and urged that the impugned order is not covered by any of the clauses of Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act. 5. Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, insofar as it is material for the purposes of this case, reads : 3. (1) If the Central Government is of opinion that it is necessary or expedient so to do for maintaining or increasing supplies of any essential commodity or for securing their equitable distribution and availability at fair prices, or for securing any essential commodity for the defence of India or the efficient conduct of military operations it may, by order, provide for regulating or prohibition the production, supply and distribution thereof and trade and commerce therein (2) With prejudice to the generality of the powers conferred by Sub-section (1), an order made thereunder may provide- (a)........ (b)........ (c)........ (d) for regulating by licences, perm ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ividual statute impugned, nor an abstract standard or general pattern of reasonableness can be laid down as applicable in all cases. The Court in each case has to strike a proper balance between the freedom guaranteed by Article 19(1)(g) and the social control permitted by Clause (6) of Article 19. By the impugned order the Central Government has only put an embargo on the dealers on keeping sugar in excess of the quantity specified. It was passed only with a view to prevent hoarding and black-marketing, and to ensure equitable distribution and availability of sugar at fair prices in the open market. 9. Reliance was placed by Shri Shanti Bhushan on State of Mysore v. H. Sanjeeviah. [1967] 2 S.C.R. 360 In that Case the State Government of Mysore had framed rules to regulate the transit of timber, firewood, charcoal and bamboos from all lands in exercise of powers conferred by Section 37 of the Mysore Forest Act 11 of 1900. By Rule 2 framed on October 13, 1952, it was provided that no person shall import forest produce into, export forest produce from, or move forest produce within, any of the areas specified in Schedule A unless such forest produce is accompanied by permit prescr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t account transform the power conferred by the provisos into a power merely regulatory. The facts of the present cases are materially different from the facts of H. Sanjeeviah's case (supra). In that case the impugned provisos to Rule 2 completely prohibited the transport of the forest produce between sun-set and sun-rise. But in the cases in hand the direction enjoined a recognised dealer not to keep sugar in stock at any time in excess of the quantity specified therein. It only seeks to regulate the limit of storage of sugar and does not prohibit its storage. The case of H. Sanjeeviah, therefore, is not of much help to the petitioners herein. 11. In Mis. Laxmi Khandsari and Ors. v. State of UP. and Ors. this Court made the following observations about reasonable restrictions on the right conferred by Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution in the following terms : As to what are reasonable restrictions would naturally depend on the nature and circumstances of the case, the character of the statute, the object which it seeks to serve, the existing circumstances, the extent of the evil sought to be remedied as also the nature of restraint or restriction placed on the righ ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... onable classification. The government is the best judge of the situation in a particular State and that quantity of sugar will meet the exigencies of the situation at a particular place is purely a governmental function For one, Calcutta serves as a feeder line to meet the requirements of sugar to the eastern part of the country, and therefore, the stocks of sugar to be held by the dealers in Calcutta are not required for consumption in Calcutta alone. Besides, Calcutta being far away from the sugar manufacturing units in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, from where bulk of supplies are obtained, sugar is transported by the wholesale dealers in railway wagons which take sometime unusually longer time in transit. These and various other factors have been taken into consideration by the Government while fixing the storage limits of sugar for the dealers in Calcutta. 14. His second ground for invoking Article 14 of the Constitution is that the impugned order is unreasonable and impracticable in that no dealer can be sure of the sale of sugar on any particular day. If per chance a dealer is not able to dispose of the excess sugar on a particular day he would expose himself to punishment unde ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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