KARACHI: Sindh High Court Chief Justice Faisal Arab on Wednesday declined to proceed with a petition against sugar mills and ordered to place the matter before another division bench saying that he dissociated himself from the case as he was himself one of the growers of sugar cane.

Headed by the chief justice, a two-judge bench was seized with the hearing of the petition against sugar mills for violating the officially fixed price of sugar cane.

Also read: CJ Arab vows to take action against corrupt judges

The petition was filed by the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) against the sugar manufactures and the provincial authorities for not paying the sugar cane growers the price set by the government.

It was submitted that the SHC had in 2004 ordered the formation of a committee, headed by the federal secretary for the industries department and all the provincial chief secretaries, the representatives of the sugar mills association, the Sindh Abadgar Board, to fix a fair, reasonable price for sugar cane by considering various relevant components and factors, including the cost of production.

The petitioner said several meetings were held under the chairmanship of the provincial agriculture secretary and the SCA submitted its proposal for fixing the minimum support price of sugar cane at Rs210 per 40 kilos.

Later, it was submitted that this proposal was debated and it was decided that the minimum support price for crushing season 2014-15 should be Rs182 per 40kg.

It was submitted that the agriculture secretary had on Nov 7, 2014 issued an official notification approving the minimum price of sugar cane at Rs182 per 40kg for the crushing season of 2014-15 and on the same date, another notification was issued specifying Nov 14 for the commencement of the crushing season.

The petitioner said the respondents failed to implement the notification, affecting the livelihood of the sugar cane growers.

It was stated in the petition that the deregulation of sugar prices and the commencement date of the crushing season left the sugar cane farmers at the mercy of private sugar mills and the middlemen.

The petitioner alleged that some sugar mills were paying sugar cane prices at Rs150 to Rs155 per 40kg, instead of the officially fixed price, which was completely an arbitrary, capricious, unlawful, unconstitutional and gross violation of the notification.

The SCA petition said the representatives of growers, including the petitioner, approached the management of the mills for paying the officially determined price, but to no avail.

It said that several complaints were submitted to the agriculture secretary and the provincial cane commissioner to initiate action against such millers but they have also failed to act.

The court was asked to direct the authorities to implement the notification, through which the minimum support price was fixed at Rs182 per 40kg.

The petitioner further asked the court to order the authorities concerned to take action under the Sugar Factories Control Act 1950 against the sugar mills for violating the officially determined price and harassing the growers.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2015

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