Union Of India And ANR v. Indian Jute Mills Association And ANR

18.10.2023.

Item No. suppl. 1.

Court No. 13 sp M.A.T. No. 1500 of 2023 With IA No. CAN 2 of 2023 Union of India & Anr.

Versus

Indian Jute Mills Association & Anr.

Mr. Ashoke Kumar Chakraborti, Ld. A.S.G, Mr. Billwadal Bhattacharyya, Ld. D.S.G.I.

Mr. Dibasish Basu, Mr. Arun Bandyopadhyay ...For the Union of India.

Mr. Jayanta Kumar Mitra, Ld. Senior Advocate Mr. Joydip Banerjee, Mr. Rahul Karmakar, Mr. S.P. Chattopadhyay, ..For the Jute Commissioner.

Mr. Abhrajit Mitra, ld. Sr. Adv., Ms. Rajshree Kajaria, Mr. Satadeep Bhttacharya ... For the Indian Jute Mills Association.

1. By consent of the parties, the appeal has been listed today for disposal.

2. Mr. Abhrajit Mitra, learned Senior Counsel for the Indian Jute Mills Association, on instructions of his client, seeks disposal of the appeal with a direction that the Central Government after due procedure and following the entire rigmarole of approvals and sanctions should be directed to complete the Jute Pricing Methodology of 580 gm of B Twill Jute Bags and take a decision on enhancement thereof, within

a period of 4 months and communicate the same to the Jute Commissioner.

3. Mr. Ashoke Kumar Chakraborti, Ld. Additional Solicitor General has made detailed submissions.

4. Having regard to the pleadings and documents that have come on record and having considered Mr. Mitra's submissions that there is already a detailed Commission report on record, and having heard Ld. ASG, this Court is of the view that it would be inappropriate for a High Court to fix a time frame on the Central Government to decide upon the pricing methodology of 580 gm of B Twill Jute Bags and/or enhancement of the rates therefor.

5. However, this Court cannot loose sight of the fact that the pricing methodology has not changed since 2016 and the Jute Industry in Bengal is facing difficulty.

6. In that view of the matter, this Court disposes of the MAT no. 1500 of 2023 directing the Central Government fix the pricing methodology of 580 gm of B Twill Jute Bags and considering any enhancement of pricing thereof, as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of 10 months from date.

7. This impugned judgment and order dated 7th September 2021 passed in WPA 13475 of 2021

shall stand set aside. WPCRC No. 14 of 2023 shall stand dismissed.

8. With the aforesaid observations, the appeal is allowed and disposed of.

9. In view of the above, CAN 2 of 2023 shall also stand disposed of.

10.

There shall be no order as to costs.

11.

All parties shall act on the server copy of this order duly downloaded from the official website of this Court.

(Rajasekhar Mantha, J.) (Supratim Bhattacharya, J.)