TMI Blog2012 (3) TMI 712X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... The Respondent-company is engaged in the business of manufacture and sale of milk products including desi ghee which it markets under the brand name 'Paras'. The company has set up a manufacturing unit at Sahibabad, District Ghaziabad, which falls within the market area of Krishi Utpadan Mandi Samiti, Ghaziabad ('KUMS' for short). The company's case is that it sells the milk products manufactured by it through its consignee agents located at several places in different parts of the country. A list of 15 consignee agents spread over the States of West Bengal, Gujarat, Goa, Orissa, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and New Delhi was in that regard enclosed by the Respondent with the writ petition filed by it before the High Court. These consignee agents, according to the Respondent-company, provide to the company services like, unloading of goods from the trucks, storage in the depots of the company, dispatch of the stocks by trucks to redistribution stockists as per sale orders, raising sale invoices on behalf of the company and collecting payments for the stocks sold. In terms of a show-cause notice issued by the Appellant-Samiti, the Respondent-company was called upon ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ers passed by the Samiti and the Deputy Director on several grounds. The High Court has, by the order impugned in the present appeal, allowed the said petition set aside the orders of the Samiti and the Deputy Director and remanded the matter back to the Samiti for a fresh assessment in accordance with law. While doing so, the High Court has not only found fault with the approach adopted by the Samiti and the Deputy Director but also commented adversely about the capacity of the officers making the orders in deciding the questions of law and fact that arise in connection with such transactions. According to the High Court the entire approach adopted by the Samiti and the Deputy Director was biased, arbitrary, and authoritative and based on a misreading of the legal provisions and the judgments of this Court. The High Court felt that all this happened because the officers who were handling the issue of such importance were not equipped with the requisite knowledge about the legal principles and procedure applicable while dealing with complex questions of law and fact. More importantly, the High Court evolved a new and somewhat novel procedure for examination of the issues involved i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the contentious issues that arose for determination was wholly unjustified. He submitted that instead of finding fault with the capacity of the officers to understand the issues, the High Court would have done better in pointing out the errors committed by the authorities below in either appreciating the law or applying the same to the facts of the case at hand. He urged that the officers had appreciated the evidence adduced by the Respondent properly and were well within their powers to reject the same for reasons which they had set out in their respective orders. So long as there was no perversity in the approach adopted by the Samiti and the Deputy Director in appreciating evidence and/or the application of principles of law to the facts of the case, the mere fact that those officers were not formally trained in law was no reason to dub them as incompetent or incapable, especially when any such training was no guarantee against commission of mistakes. 3. It was further argued that the High Court had completely overlooked the fact that the Respondent-company had, in complete breach of the directions and procedure sanctioned by the orders passed by this Court, removed the stoc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the Act. 3. The appeals are disposed of in the above terms. 5. Pursuant to the above pronouncements the Mandi Samiti appears to have started issuing gate passes on payment of mandi fee demanded by them at the time of issue of gate pass. A change in the procedure came about as a result of the decision of this Court in M/s Saraswati Cane Crusher (supra). In that case the dealers had argued that the procedure being followed pursuant in Shree Mahalaxmi Sugar Works (supra) was not satisfactory inasmuch as the requirement of hearing and of an adjudication was not being satisfied unless an aggrieved dealer was in a position to challenge the assessment in the manner provided under the Act. A three-Judge Bench of this Court found merit in that contention and held that the order passed in Shree Mahalaxmi Sugar Works (supra) required some repair work. The Court observed: We are satisfied that the orders of this Court afore-referred to would need some repair work. We treat the said order to be conceiving of a provisional assessment where after doors are opened for a final assessment. We conceive that when demands are raised by the Krishi Utpadan Mandi Samiti against a trader befor ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... could ask for a transit pass for removal of the goods outside the market area. In the course of the said provisional assessment the trader would be entitled to tender a valid rebuttal to the statutory presumption under Section 17 of the Adhiniyam and argue that no sale having taken place within the notified area, it was not liable to pay any market fee on the movement of goods. If the explanation offered by the trader was accepted the gate pass would be issued without insisting upon any payment of the fee. But if the evidence laid by the trader is not prima facie accepted by the Mandi Samiti the trader or the dealer can be compelled to pay market fee before issue of gate pass to him. The Court further held that if the trader makes the payment without demand the matter ends and the issue finalised. In case, however, he raises a protest then the assessment shall be taken to be provisional in nature making it obligatory for the trader to pay the fee before obtaining the requisite gate pass. After protest has been lodged the provisional assessment shall be followed by a final assessment within a time frame. The Court prescribed a period of two months in respect of each such transaction ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r in holding that even when the movement of goods without gate passes may have been in violation of the rules regulating the issue of such passes, any such violation could only call for a penalty under the said rules. Assessment of market fee on the removal of such goods from the mandi area was, according to the High Court, a different matter unrelated to the breach of the rules requiring the traders to remove goods only on the authority of validly issued gate passes. The High Court appears to have overlooked the fact that if gate passes are required to be obtained under the rules, removal of stocks without applying for such gate passes and without furnishing prima facie evidence of proof that there was no sale of the goods involved, was a reason enough for the Mandi Samiti to demand payment of the market fee on the stocks that were removed. The absence of gate passes was tantamount to removal of the goods in breach of the relevant rules and also in breach of the directions issued by this Court in the two cases mentioned above. A dealer who adopted such dubious procedure and means could not complain of a failure of opportunity to produce material in support of its claim that no sal ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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