Pay cane farmers Rs 110 a quintal, SC tells UP sugar mills

The rate is apparently higher than the one fixed by the main bench of the Allahabad High Court. The Supreme Court will review today's order in July, by which time the judgment of the Allahabad High Court on the sugarcane price is expected.

Without specifying the amount to be paid, the Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat clarified that mills have to pay the amount due after adjusting the dues already paid. There will be no claims for refund for 2006-07.

 

Since Uttarakhand had promised to follow prices declared in Uttar Pradesh, 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 will for the crushing year 2007-08.

The UP government and a number of sugar mills had 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 (SAP) to be paid to cane growers and the statutory minimum price , which has not satisfied mills and the government.

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

Welcoming the judgement as a positive development, most sugar companies said it does not affect them since they had been accounting for sugarcane at a rate of Rs 110 a quintal in keeping with the Allahabad High Court interim price order of November 2007.

The high court had announced an interim price of Rs 110 a quintal as against the SAP of Rs 125-130 a quintal fixed by the state government.

Most sugar stocks reacted positively to the news. On the Bombay Stock Exchange, share prices of Bajaj Hindusthan gained 7.14 per cent to Rs 239.25, while Balrampur Chini closed at Rs 101.95, up 4.78 per cent from their previous close.