Sugar mill told to challenge market and licence fees in Nawabshah court

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed a private sugar mill to approach the Shaheed Benazirabad civil court to challenge the increase in market and licence fees chargeable by market committees in the province.

The direction came on a lawsuit of the Habib Sugar Mills against the Sindh government and the Shaheed Benazirabad market committee with regard to the increase in market and licence fees chargeable by market committees in the province under the Agriculture Produce Markets Act, 1939.

The plaintiff said the Nawabshah market committee had demanded through notice that the plaintiff pay market and licence fees at increased rates. Their counsel said the increase is arbitrary, exorbitant and confiscatory.

The counsel also said that such power cannot be exercised under the 1939 Act after it was repealed by the 2010 Sindh Act. The counsel sought declarations to that effect and consequential relief.

The high court had earlier questioned its territorial jurisdiction to entertain the suit at Karachi. The plaintiff’s counsel said the suit can be filed at Karachi.

The counsel pointed out that the notification amending the rules to increase market and licence fees was issued by the Sindh government at Karachi, so a part of the cause of action arose at Karachi under Section 20(c) of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC).

A single SHC bench headed by Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry said that the impugned demand for market and licence fees was raised at Shaheed Benazirabad. The court said the activity for which such fees were charged was also carried out by the plaintiff at Shaheed Benazirabad.

The bench said that if the arguments of the plaintiff’s counsel were to be accepted, all the suits emanating anywhere in the province seeking a declaration in respect of a provincial statute can be brought to Karachi, from where the statute is usually notified.

The court said that it is the civil court at Shaheed Benazirabad that has territorial jurisdiction under Section 20(c) of the CPC to entertain the suit. The SHC ordered that the plaint would therefore be returned while retaining a copy for purposes of record.