Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Union Of India & Anr vs Indian Jute Mills Association & ... on 18 October, 2023
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.)
