SC sets arrears price rate at Rs 110/quintal for cane

Refusing the Allahabad High Court decision of paying arrears to cane growers at the rate of Rs 125 per quintal, the Supreme Court of India on Monday directed the private, co-operative and State-owned sugar mills of Uttar Pradesh to pay all the outstanding dues of cane growers at the rate of Rs 110 per quintal purchased during Oct 07-Sep 08 crushing season.

‘All the outstanding dues must be paid within four weeks of the order,’ as per the direction of seating bench comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice H S Bedi in an interim order by adding, “this payment will be excluding transportation charges.”

As a result of the decision, the cane growers will now be able to get net payment of Rs 110 per quintal for their overall dues for that particular season. However, this set price for cane crushing is still lower than the UP government’s State Advised Price (SAP) of Rs 125 per quintal for the common variety and Rs 130 for early variety as UP Chief Minister Mayawati had set for 2007-08 season.

Meanwhile, the SC has said that court would scrutinise both the pleas of state government and the mill owners, and asked for the replies from both sides within four weeks. The final decision in this regard is expected to come in the next few weeks.

The apex court has also rebuked mill owners for not paying the due amount for the previous crushing season of 2006-07 despite bringing a notice in this regard. For this, court has ordered to pay between Rs 115 to Rs 123 per quintal, depending upon the cane quality, for last season.

The apex court has also annoyed over Allahabad HC’s two contradictory decisions on the same issues of different cases. In one case, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on July 7 had ordered the UP mills to pay Rs 125 a quintal while in the other the Allahabad HC made a direction to pay at Rs 81.18 per quintal by quashing the UP government’s SAP price and adding the statutory minimum price (SMP) set by the central government.

Against the first decision of Lucknow bench of Allahabad HC, the mill owners moved to the apex court while for the second one, the UP government appealed in the Supreme Court.