ivil Appeal Nos
1186 to 201 of 1975
Appeals by Special Leave from the Judgment and orders dated the 11th November 1974 6th December 1974 and 27th November 1974 of the Allahabad High Court in Civil Misc
Writ Nos 4139 5354 5352 5353 5355 5357 4065 4912 4326 4212 4218 4545 4328 4543 and 4769 of 1972 respectively
804 G section Pathak In CA 118675 section Swarup Shri Narain for the appellants In CAs
Nos1186 1194 1195 and 1196 119775
V Gupte R N Bhalgotra and SS Khanduja for the appellants In CA No 118775
section section Khanduja for the appellants In CAs
1188 1192 of 1975 
V J Francis of Ms Ramamurthy  Co for the appellants In CA No 119375
Yogeshwar Prasad and Miss Rani Arora for the appellants In CA No 119875 and 119975
N N Goswamy and Arvind Minocha for the appellant In CA No 120175
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by KRISHNA IYER J
We should have made short shift of this batch of appeals on the brief but fatal ground that the appellants all sugar millers who had over priced this essential consumer article and had failed in their challenge of the controlled price had no moral nor legal claim to keep the huge sums which the High Court had right to directed them to disgorge
When the price of levy sugar  was pegged down by the State these factory owners rushed to the Court impeaching the validity of the control and secured a stay of operation of the order
Under cover of the Court s stay order which was granted on bank guarantee for the excess price being furnished to the court the appellants sold sugar at free market rates a euphemism for blackmarket racket unfortunately with judicial sanction
Crores of rupees were admittedly funnelled into the millers  tills
But eventually the High Court upheld the control of price and the unhappy obligation to restore the unjust enrichment arose
The High Court whose process kept the control price in cold storage had to do justice by the community of consumers who were the unwitting victims of this judicially declared holiday from control which was quickly converted into a fleece as you please seller situation
And so the Court made the following direction We therefore direct that the Registrar will take immediate steps to encash the security and recover the amount so over charged by the petitioners and pay the same to the State Government which will keep it in a separate account
The petitioners will furnish to the State Government within a period of six weeks of this order a list of all such persons to whom they sold the levy sugar of 1971 72 season together with their addresses quantity of such sugar sold to and the amount of excess price charged from each of them
The State Government will then refund to the persons concerned the excess amount realised from each of them if necessary after verifying the claim for refund of such amount made by such persons
 805 The reluctant millers have sought and got leave to appeal against this just direction and in the course of arguments have made some suggestions about the disposal of the moneys
The inarticulate assumption was presumably that crores of rupees could remain with them until a suitable schemes for percolation of the excess prices to the ultimate small buyer could be fashioned
Indeed at some stage a hesitant proposal was made that since the sugar industry has allegedly had lean years these considerable sums picked  from the pockets of a considerable number of consumers had better be allowed to be retained by the millers
Another diffident hint was made that these several crores of rupees be used for stablising the sugar cane growers  economic position
The easy to see through design behind these developmental  ideas was to have use of this large windfall till some distant project was evolved
Indubitably the appellants are in unrighteous enjoyment of colossal sums which belong to small consumers
Not amount more can the millers keep what the Court has ordered the Registrar to collect by enforcing the bank guarantees
Indeed they have had dubious business use of these vast sums for a few years nearly a year soon after the High Court s final judgment
Once we disenchanted them as arguments proceeded that the conscience of the Court would unconditionally compel the money to be called in forthwith their interest in making fertile pro bono publicco suggestions as to how best to organise the disbursement of the small sums to the actual buyers flagged and later in the day Shri Dadachanji Advocate on record in these cases even moved that if leave had not been formally granted the special leave petitions be allowed to be withdrawn and if leave had been already granted Court fee exemption for these many appeals may be directed
This shows up the public concern of these sugar manufacturers
Anyway the Registrar of the High Court shall take immediate steps to encash the security furnished by the appellants
The money of the many little men gotten by the few millers by selling an essential commodity to the community at what is frankly black market price under the umbrella of Court order of stay shall get back to the scattered crowd of a small consumers as early and as inexpensively as possible
A public injury perpetrated by calling in aid Court process must quicken judicial conscience to improvise an ad hoc procedure to restore through the Court s authority what has been nibbled from the numerous buyers
Innovative realism is obligated on the Court on the broad basis actus curiae neminem gravabit
Why did the buyers pay higher prices for levy sugar  Because they respected the High Court s order
In this justice situation conventional procedures of each small claimant being left to litigate for his little sum from the miller or wholesaler is to write off the remedy and allow the ill gotten wealth to be in the coffers of the wrong doer who got the charter to charge high from a Court order
Nor is the seemingly sweet suggestion that a representative action under order 1
r 8 CPC be instituted on be half of the class of consumers feasible
Who is to start Against whom  How is he to meet the huge litigative costs and how long O Lord how long is he to wait with long drawn out trial procedures appeal second appeal special appeal and Supreme Court appeal  For on the other side is the miller with the millions to be coughed up 806 The handling of small claims is probably the most deplorable feature of the administration of civil justice and yet small claims are in many respects more significant than large ones involving large numbers and inter class disputes
If the confidence of the community in the justice system especially consumer protection is to be created radical reform of the processual law is needed now and here
Rejecting therefore the recommendations for solution of the problem arising here
as put forward by counsel for the appellants we have to devise other measures
We are aware of our limitations 
The judge even when he is free is still not wholly free
He is not to innovate at pleasure
He is not a knight errant roaming at will in pursuit of his own ideal of beauty or of goodness
He is to draw his inspiration from consecrated principles
He is not to yield to spasmodic santiment to value and unregulated benevolence
He is to exercise a discretion informed by tradition methodized by analogy disciplined by system and subordinated to the primordial necessity of order in social life  Wide enough in all conscience is the field of discretion that remains
 1 The difficulty we face here cannot force us to abandon the inherent powers of the Court to do
The inherent power has its roots in necessity and its breadth is co extensive with the necessity2 Certainly we cannot go against any statutory prescription
Had India had a developed system of class actions or popular organisation taking up public interest litigation we could have hoped for relief otherwise than by this Court s order
We lag in this regard although people are poor and claims are individually trivial
Legal aid lo the poor has a processual dimension As things stand if each victim were remitted to an individual suit the remedy could be illusory for the individual loss may be too small a suit too prohibitive in time and money and the wrong would go without redress
If there is to be relief we must construct it here by simple legal engineering
The Solicitor General appearing for the State of UP and the Union of India informed us that legislation was about to be enacted to take care of these situations
If it did come it were welcome
After all the Legislature must show better legal concern for the small marl as this class of consumers who are wronged or deceived are on the increase In the present case we think that the following complex of directions will pragmatically meet the needs both of the appellants and the range of buyers from whom higher prices were charged  A
The security by way of bank guarantee furnished by every appellant will be encashed by the Registrar
Of the High Court and kept in short term deposit in the State Bank of India r 1 Benjamin Cardozo s The Nature of the Judicial Process  Yale university Press 1921 2 Theoretical Basis Inherent Powers Doctrine Text material prepared by Jim R Carrigan Publication of National College of The state Judiciary USA 807 B The appellants will be given complete immunity from liability to any sugar buyer wholesaler or other to whom sugar has been sold by the appellants at higher prices during the period covered by the High Court s stay order
If any exceptional case of claim were to be made by any buyer it   should be done by motion before the High Court which will I be justly disposed of
The Registrar under orders of the High Court will directly or by making over to the State Government receive and dispose of claims from the ultimate consumer for excess price paid on proper proof
If the State Government is to undertake this task a proper easy and cheap machinery for distribution to the real last buyers will be produced before the High Court and orders obtained
The process should not be too expensive or too formalised
D Wide publicity will be given about the project and method of returning small claims and the money sent by post or otherwise
The claims also would be received by post or otherwise and verified without delay
The interest accruing from the bank deposits will be used for the incidentals to work out the distribution
F It will be open to the wholesaler to prove by vouchers the retailers and the latter in turn may prove who the ultimate  buyers are
The High Court may devise modifications of this scheme or direct the State Government to act on any scheme subject to the moneys reaching the real small buyers from the retailers
If any further directions in the mechanics of the scheme are felt necessary the High Court will report to this court
If within one year from today any amounts remain unclaimed they will go into a separate deposit in the High Court to be operated on application by any claimant
If any legislation dealing with this subject were to be made before the amounts are disbursed the legislative scheme will pro tanto prevail over the directions given above
The court fee on these civil appeals will be exempted in the special circumstances of the case
K Parties will bear their own costs in this Court
May be the procedure we have suggested above is somewhat unconventional but where public interest is involved
Courts of equity may and frequently do go much further both to give and withhold relief in furtherance of the public interest than they are accustomed to go where only 808 private interests are involved
Accordingly the granting or withholding of relief may properly be dependent upon considerations as of public interest  1 We hope the vigilant legislature will activise itself on behalf of the little men and the law and make quick moving easily accessible and free of cost consumer protection measures
Slogans are not law and the rule of law in a welfare oriented constitutional order demands poverty law none too soon with emphasis on the delivery of legal services with distances shortened and road hazards removed
It is not for the Court to spell out more but it is for the State to awaken to a overlooked but not infrequent legal phenomenon
PHP Appeals dismissed


Summary:
The appellants challenged the validity of fixation of price of levy the high Court
During the pendency of the petitions the appellants a stay order from the High Court for charging the price in eyes price fixed by the State on furnishing Bank guarantees for the excess price Ultimately the High Court upheld the control of price and directed appellants to restore the excess money recovered from the consumer to the through the State Government
The appellants filed the present Special Leave against the said order of the High Court and contended that since the Sugar Industry had lean year the excess amount should be allowed to retained by the appellant or that the excess amount should be to be utilised for stabilising the sugarcane growers  economic position alternative it was prayed that the excess amount could remain with the appellant unite a suitable scheme for the return of the excess amount to the was made
Dismissing the appeals  HELD  1
The appellants had doubt business use of these crores of rupees for nearly a year even after the High Court s final judgment
The money of the many little men got by the few millers by selling an essential commodity to the community at what is frankly black market price under the umbrella of court order of stay shall get back to the scattered crowd of small consumers as early and as inexpensively as possible
A public injury perpetrated by calling in aid court process must waken judicial conscience to improvise an ad hoc procedure to restore through the court s authority what has been nibbled from the numerous buyers
The handling of small claims is probably a must deplorable features of the administration of civil justice and yet small claims are in many respect more signification than large ones involving large numbers and inter class disputes
If the confidence of the community in the justice system especially consumer protection
is to be created radical reform of the processual law is needed now and here
The inherent power of the court has its roots in the necessity and its breadth is co extensive with the necessity
The Court directed that the Bank guarantees furnished by the appellants should be encashed by the Registrar and kept in short term deposit
That he claims of the consumers should be settled by the Registrar of the High Court under the order of the High Court through an easy and cheap machinery
That wide publicity should be given about the method of returning and that small claims might be accepted by cost and money also returned by post
804 C E 806 A D 807 BD