Ganga Narayan Mukherjee vs The Director of District Distribution and Others

Altames Kabir, J.—The grievance of the petitioner in this writ application is refusal by the District Controller (F & S) Bankura to consider his application for recommencing Rice Milling operation in his defunct rice mill. Mr. Asoke Kr. Sengupta learned Advocate, appearing in support of the writ petition has submitted that the authorities concerned have misunderstood the application made by the petitioner and has treated it to be an application for a new permit, although, the same was really an application for permission to recommence milling operations in the defunct mill owned by the petitioner.

Mr. Sengupta has drawn the attention of the Court to the provisions of section 5(b) of the Rice Milling Industries (Regulation) Act 1958 which provides that in granting a permit u/s 5 of the Act the Central Government shall give preference to a defunct mill over a new rice mill Mr. Sengupta submitted that the distinction between a new rice mill and- a defunct rice mill has been made clear in clause (b) of section 5 of the aforesaid Act and hence the reasons sought to be given by the District Controller (F &S). Bankura while rejecting the petitioner''s prayer was not proper and was not borne out by the facts.

Mrs. Dipti Bhattacharya - II learned Advocate appearing for the State has submitted that there is a general injunction regarding grant of new permits under the aforesaid Act. In fact this position has been made clear in paragraph 8 of the Affidavit-in-opposition affirmed on behalf of the State and the State Respondents. It however appears from the statement made in the said paragraph that injunction relates to grant of new permits whereas, in the present application the question of granting new permit does not arise, since the petitioner is the owner of a defunct rice mill and permission has been sought for by the petitioner for re-commencement of rice milling operations

Sengupta''s submission in this regard appear to be of substance and differentiation sought to be made between grant of new permits and grant of permits for recommencing rice milling operations in defunct milling to be sound.

Having regard to the above, I dispose of this application with a direction upon the District Controller (F &S) Bankura to dispose of the petitioner''s application for grant of permit to recommence rice milling operations in his defunct rice mill, in accordance with the provisions of Section 5(b) of the aforesaid Act provided there is no express bar in the pending writ application in doing so in respect of defunct rice mills, within a period of one month from the date of communication of this order, after giving the petitioner and/or his representative a reasonable opportunity of being heard. Having regard to the above, the impugned communication dated 17th June 1992 being annexure ''H'' to the writ petition is hereby quashed. The writ application is thus disposed of. There will be no order as to costs. Let xerox copies of this order be given to the teamed Advocates for the respective parties on their usual undertaking.