Sugar mills to pay rate fixed by high court

This is apparently higher than that fixed by the main bench of the high court at Allahabad. The Supreme Court will review today's order in July by which time the judgment of the Allahabad high court on the fixing of sugar cane price is expected.

Without specifying the amount to be paid, the Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat clarified that the mills shall pay the amounts due after making adjustments towards the dues already paid. There shall be no claims for refund for the year 2006-07.

Since Uttarkhand had promised to follow the prices declared in UP, the Supreme Court made the order applicable to the new state also. As a result, the price declared by the Lucknow bench of the high court for 2007-08 shall operate for the crushing year 2007-08.

The UP government and a large number of sugar mills have approached the Supreme Court challenging various orders of the high court pertaining to different crushing years. The Allahabad high court has just reserved its order on the dispute after a day-to-day hearing ordered by the Supreme Court.

It had earlier passed several interim orders regarding the state advisory price to be paid to the cane growers and the statutory minimum price, which have not satisfied the mills and the government. There are parallel orders of the two benches of the high court, making the issue more complex.

The government and the mills have approached the Supreme Court over the interim orders passed by the two benches of the high court hotly contesting the figures which are due and the arrears, apart from the legal issues like the power of the state to fix prices.

According to major mills, like Bajaj Hindustan and  Modi Sugar Mills there are no arrears, while the government puts the figure at more than Rs 1,000 crore.