LIMITED & ANR. ETC. v. UNION OF INDIA & ORS.

"The structure·of a rate schedule calls in peculiar measure for the use of that enlightened judgment which the Com- c mission by training and experience is qualified to form ..... It is not the province of a court to absorb this func- tion to itself ..... The judicial function is exhausted when there is found to be a rational basis tor the conclusions approved by the administrative body". D

It is a matter of policy and planning for the Central Government to decide whether it would be on adoption of a system of partiill con- trol, in the best economic interest of the sugar industry and the general public that the sugar factories are grouped together with reference to geographical·cum-agro-economic factors for the purpose of determin- E ing the price of levy sugar. Sufficient power has been. delegated to the Central Government to formulate and implement its policy decision by means of statutory instruments and ·executive orders. Whether the policy should be altered to divide the sugar industry into groups of units with similar cost characteristics with particular reference to recovery, duration, size and age of the units and capital cost per tonne F of output, without regard to their location, as recommended by the BICP, is again a matter for the Central Government to decide. What is best for the sugar industry and in what manner the policy should be formulated and implemented, bearing in mind the fundamental object of the statute, viz., supply and equitable distribution of essential com- modity at fair prices in the best interest of the general public, is a G matter for decision exclusively within the province of the Central Government. Such matters do not ordinarily attract the power of judi- cial review.

We would, in this connection, recall the words of Justice Frank- furter in Secretar)'__of Agriculture, etc. v. Central Roig Refining Com- H

950 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1990] 1 S.C.R.

A pany, etc., 338US615-617,94 Led391-392:

"Congress was ..... confronted with the formulation of policy peculiarly with its wide swath of discretion. It would be a singular intrusion of the judiciary into the legislative process to extrapolate restrictions upon the B formulation of such an economic policy from those deeply rooted notions of justice which the Due Process Clause expresses ..... ".

"Suffice it to say that since Congress fixed the quotas on a historical basis it is not for this Court to reweigh the relevant factors and, perchance, substitute its notion of c expediency and fairness for that of Congress. This is so even though the quotas thus fixed may demonstrably be disadvantageous to certain areas or persons. This Court is not a tribunal for relief from the crudities and inequities of complicated experimental economic legislation". D It is important to remember that the division of the industry on a zonal basis for the purpose of price determination has been accepted without question by almost all the producers with the exception of a few like the petitioners. Even if it is true that the petitioners as indi- viduals are at a disadvantage and have suffered losses on account of 1£ the present system-an assertion which has not been established and which by its very nature is incapable of determination by judicial review-that is not sufficient ground for interference with the

' impugned orders. We are not satisfied that the decisions of this Court in Anakapalle, [1973] 2 SCR 882 and Panipat, [1973] 2 SCR 860 require reconsideration in any respect. We see no merit in the F challenge against the impugned orders. The civil writ petitions are, in the circumstances, dismissed. However, we do not make any order as to costs.

P.S.S. Petitions dismissed.