Hyderabad: Justice A. Ramalingeswara Rao of the AP High Court ruled that a district collector cannot play the role of a mediator where he has no jurisdiction.
The judge was allowing a batch of petitions by M/s VenkateswaraVegetable Fruits Chillies Growers’ Cold Storage Pvt. Ltd and others challenging an order of the Guntur district administration directing them to pay excess amount of Rs 6 lakh collected from the farmers for storage of their chilli stocks in the cold storages.
The order cautioned the Cold Storage owners if they failed to pay the excess amount, it would be recovered under the provisions of Revenue Recovery Act.
The judge observed that “in this case, the district collector has done what he was not supposed to do, as fixation of price for the goods stored in a cold storage, is not within his purview. It is regulated by market conditions between the cold storage owners and the farmers and is a legislative function.”
The judge pointed out that the establishment of cold storages was of recent origin.
There was no obligation on the part of the farmer to store his produce in the cold storages, and if it was advantageous to the farmer, he uses that facility or otherwise he would seek alternative sources.
The judge made it clear that till price fixation mechanism was put in place, by relevant laws or made by the competent legislature, the administrator has no role to play on his own, even for public good.
Referring to the constitutional set up and the rulings of the Apex Court in various cases ,with regard to power of the district collector, the judge said “the district collector is not part of the political executive, and the political executive is separate from bureaucracy. The collector has to implement the decisions of the political executive and he cannot implement independent policies without the sanction of the political executive and legislature.
Observing that the order of the district administration without sanction of law, the judge directed the collector to make arrangement to refund the amount collected from the petitioners.
