WA 420/2006 BEFORE HON’BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR J CHELAMESWAR HON’BLE MR JUSTICE HRISHIKESH ROY Heard Mrs M Hazarika, learned counsel for the appellants and Mrs B Goyal, learne d State Counsel for the respondents. Aggrieved by a judgment dated 22-8-06 in WP(C) No.4900/05 the petitioners therei n preferred the present appeal. It may not be necessary to go into the complete details of the case in view of the affidavit filed by the State dated 28-8-08 th rough the Director of Industries & Commerce Mr Nur Mohammad. Briefly stated, the appellants agreed to supply direct action hand pumps to the State of Assam (respondents). There was some dispute regarding the price of such pumps required to be supplied by the appellants. The supply, such as the one ma de by the appellants, is said to be covered by the procedure prescribed by the A ssam Preferential Stores Purchase Act, 1989. A statutory body functioning under the provisions of the above mentioned Act fixed the price at Rs.6500/- per set. Dissatisfied with the price so fixed the appellants had earlier approached the S tate of Assam. The State of Assam on consideration of the representation of the appellants agreed to pay at the rate of Rs.8200/- per set by its order dated 8-7 -04 of the Secretary to the Govt of Assam, Industries & Commerce Department. Not withstanding the decision of the government to make such pay the actual payment in fact was not made by the State. Therefore the appellants approached this cour t by way of the above mentioned writ petition. By the judgment under appeal the writ petition came to be dismissed on the groun d that the role of the State of Assam in fixing the price is excluded by the sta tutory provisions of the above mentioned Act. When the matter was taken up on earlier occasion Mrs B Goyal, learned State Coun sel sought time to obtain further instruction in the matter and today when the m atter is taken up an affidavit of the Director of Industries & Commerce, referre d to earlier, is filed wherein the deponent stated that the State will stand by its decision to pay the appellants at the rate of Rs.8200/- per set and the depo nent is of the opinion that the State has the power in terms of Section 19 of th e Act, 1989. The question whether Section 19 of the Act so authorizes the State or no is not to be decided in a matter where the parties are not in issue on the said questio n. When ultimately it is a matter of contract between the parties and in the abs ence of any challenge by alleging that such a contract is in contravention of la w courts should be slow to examine such issues. We, therefore, close this appeal recording the stand of the State as reflected i n para-2 of the affidavit of the Director of Industries & Commerce dated 28-8-08 which reads as follows :- That the humble deponent begs to state that the technical committee-3 in its me eting dated 08-10-203 had fixed the price of Direct Action Hand Pump @ Rs.6500/- per set. However, the government re-examined the price fixed by the Technical C ommittee and vide Government order No.CI.332/2003/38 dated 08-07-2004 revised th e same and fixed the price of Direct Action Hand Pump @ Rs.8200/- per set (exclu ding duties & taxes) w.e.f. 08-10-2003 (in lieu of the price fixed by the Techni cal Committee-3 i.e. @ Rs.6500/- per set). It may be noted that this has been do ne in exercise of the power conferred under Section 19 of the Assam Preferential Stores Purchase Act, 1989. The writ appeal stands closed.