The Sindh High Court directed the government to constitute the Sugarcane Control Board within 10 days.
The court ordered that the price of sugarcane as may be fixed by the board be notified by the government before November 30. The directive came at a hearing of a petition filed by Syed Mureed Ali Shah and the sugar mills association seeking implementation of the Sugar Factory Control Act 1950.
A division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, after hearing arguments of the counsel, observed that under Section 3 of the act, the government was required to establish a Sugarcane Control Board with the a chairman and its members.
The court observed that under the act, the government may on the recommendations of the board or otherwise by a notification determine the minimum price of sugarcane in view of the cost of production of sugarcane and the return to the grower from alternative crops and the general trend of prices of agriculture commodities.
The bench further said that consistent with Section 8 of the act, the occupier of a factory was bound to send a notice to the sugarcane commissioner in the prescribed form intimating him of his intention to start crushing one month before the crushing starts, but it unequivocally stipulated that the occupier would start crushing by a date no later than November 30 each year.
Agriculture secretary Agha Zaheeruddin submitted that the government would constitute the board within 10 days and a meeting would be immediately convened for fixing the sugarcane price. The counsel for sugar mills submitted that the crushing season would be notified in accordance with the act.
The court by consent of the parties directed the government to establish the board within 10 days and convene its meeting for fixing the sugarcane price in accordance with the law.
With regard to payment of sugarcane prices to growers by the mills, the court ordered the constitution of a high-power committee for conducting an exercise of reconciliation on growers applications. The committee will be supervised by the agriculture secretary and sugarcane commissioner, representatives of growers and sugar mills, and it will examine 1,300 applications of the growers and complete the reconciliation task within 45 days. The committee, after verifying the documents of growers and sugar mills with regard to the payment of outstanding dues, will submit a report to the agriculture secretary.
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