Courts don’t monitor profit, loss dealing between parties: Supreme Court

ISLAMABAD: The SC has remarked that the courts have a duty to resolve legal disputes in accordance with the law rather than to supervise pricing or monitor profit and loss dealings between the stakeholders.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Umer Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin, issued a written order in the petition, filed by Federation of Pakistan, through Secretary Ministry of Industries & Production, and another, verses Hamza Sugar Mills Ltd, Rahim Yar Khan, and others.

The court, in its written order, issued on Friday, held that the impugned interim order dated Aug 3, 2021 protects the interest of the respondent mill-owners on the strength of a surety bond equal to the difference in price, charged by them and the price fixed by the regulators on July 30, 2021.

“We do not consider that the surety bond constitutes sufficient security for the regulators. According to the impugned order, the cane commissioner is maintaining the records of production and sales of all sugar mills in the province,” the court noted in written order.

The court directed that the cane commissioner should continue to do so and keep an account of the amount charged and collected by the sugar mills and the amount fixed by the regulators at the stage (ex-factory and/or retail) specified by the latter. The court directed that difference in the two amounts be deposited contemporaneously by each sugar mill with the Deputy Registrar (Judicial) of the Lahore High Court, Lahore.