Civil Writ Petition No.12401 of 1993 -1- **** IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH 1. Civil Writ Petition No.12401 of 1993 Date of decision: 25.11.2010 M/s Lal Chand Raj Kumar and another ...Petitioners Versus Market Committee and another ...Respondents 2. Civil Writ Petition No.15593 of 1993 M/s Jai Janta Trading Co. and others ...Petitioners Versus Market Committee and another ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE ADARSH KUMAR GOEL HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE AJAY KUMAR MITTAL Present: Mr. R.L.Batta, Senior Advocate with Mr. J.S.Saggu, Advocate for the petitioner Mr. S.C.Pathela, Advocate for the respondents. **** ADARSH KUMAR GOEL, J ( Oral) This order will dispose of Civil Writ Petition Nos.12401 and 15593 of 1993 as common questions are involved in both these petitions. Civil Writ Petition No.12401 of 1993 seeks a direction Civil Writ Petition No.12401 of 1993 -2- **** against charging of market fee on raw (unshelled) groundnuts brought from outside of Punjab for processing. Case set out in the petition is that the petitioners are carrying on business of roasting of groundnuts after bringing the same from Rajasthan. Under Rule 30 of the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets (General) Rules, 1962 no market fee can be levied on such a transaction but in spite of this, the Market Committee has issued a notice of recovery demanding market fee on the said items. In the reply filed, the stand on behalf of the Market Committee is that the State Government has a power to go into the correctness or otherwise of the order passed by the Board or any of its officers under the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, 1961 and in some similar matters mentioned therein, it has been held that without availing of such remedy, the writ petition is not maintainable. On 17.2.1994, the writ petition was admitted but stay was declined. Thereafter, on 8.12.1999 recovery of market fee was stayed on giving an undertaking that on dismissal of the writ petition, petitioner shall pay interest at the rate of 12% with half yearly rests on the amount that may be found due on account of market fee. This order was passed in view of the order passed in Civil Writ Petition No.4132 of 1999. After passing of the stay order, Civil Writ Petition No.4132 of 1999 was disposed of on 21.7.2000 by relegating the petitioner to alternative remedy. We have heard learned counsel for the parties. Learned counsel for the Market Committee submits that Civil Writ Petition No.12401 of 1993 -3- **** recovery proceedings will be initiated only after passing of the assessment order and in view of the pendency of this writ petition, the petitioners may not raise any objection with regard to limitation against the assessment order to be passed. In view of the fact that alternative remedy is available to the petitioner, we need not go into the merits of this petition at this stage. The petitioners are at liberty to raise their objections before the Assessing Authority. The Assessing Authority will pass assessment order within two months from today after considering the view point of the petitioners. Learned counsel for the petitioners fairly states that in view of pendency of writ petitions and grant of stay, they will not raise plea of assessment being barred by time. Accordingly, both the writ petitions are disposed of without prejudice to alternative remedies. (Adarsh Kumar Goel) Judge November 25,2010 (Ajay Kumar Mittal) Pka Judge