IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) TUESDAY, THE ELEVENTH DAY OF AUGUST TWO THOUSAND AND NINE PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE GOPALA KRISHNA TAMADA WRIT PETITION NO : 16406 of 2009 Between: M/s. Sri Ramakrishna General Merchants, Machilipatnam. ..... PETITIONER(S) AND The District Collector, Machilipatnam, Krishna District and three others. .....RESPONDENT(S) HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE GOPALA KRISHNA TAMADA W.P.No.16406 of 2009 ORDER: The petitioner, which is a rice mill, filed the present writ petition with the following prayer: “The Hon’ble Court may be pleased to issue a writ of Mandamus declaring the order dated 01-08-2009, issued by the 1st respondent in E.C.P.No.185/2009, directing the 2nd respondent to dispose the B.P.T. Paddy (after miling) and B.P.T. Rice, in the open market at the rate of Rs.20/- per k.g. as illegal and arbitrary and consequently direct the respondents to release the said stock to the petitioner.” The facts, in brief, are that the petitioner is having a valid licence issued under From-B to carry on milling operations and though the same is valid up to 30-09-2009, the Vigilance (Enforcement) Authorities visited the business premises i.e. the mill of the petitioner and seized entire stocks available in the godown. On the basis of the report furnished by the Vigilance (Enforcement) Department, the 1st respondent-District Collector, Krishna District, initiated proceedings under Section 6-A of the Essential Commodities Act. The petitioner approached the 1st respondent and filed an application seeking release of the said stocks and the 1st respondent was pleased to release of the stocks except B.P.T. Paddy and B.P.T. Rice. Aggrieved by the same, the petitioner approached this Court and filed the present writ petition. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner, learned Government Pleader for Civil Supplies, appearing for R-1 and R-3, Sri T.S. PraveenKumar, learned counsel for R-2, and the learned Government Pleader for Home, appearing for R-4. Most of the rice in the State of Andhra Pradesh is meant to be distributed under Public Distribution System to the card holders. Hence, this Court is not inclined to order release of the said rice as well as the paddy to the petitioner. However, the 1st respondent-District Collector, Krishna District, may complete the proceedings under Section 6-A of the Essential Commodities Act, at the earliest, preferably, within a period of eight weeks from today and pass necessary orders indicating as to whether the rice and paddy are liable to be released in favour of the petitioner or confiscated to the State. Till such time, the rice and paddy shall not be sold by way of public auction. With the aforementioned directions, the writ petition is disposed of. No order as to costs. _________________ 11th August 2009 kvr