Sugar mill owners in Uttar Pradesh will have to pay cane growers between Rs 115 and Rs 123 per quintal, depending upon the quality, the Supreme Court said today in an interim order while fixing the price for the crushing season 2006-07.
A bench, headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat, directed that the dues have to be paid within six weeks.
The court passed the order on a bunch of petitions filed by sugarcane farmers and the Uttar Pradesh government challenging the Allahabad High Court's order that had quashed the government's decision to fix the price of sugarcane at Rs 125-130 per quintal.
The court said the lowest quality cane, which falls in the category of "suitable variety", would command a price of Rs 115 per quintal while the "general variety" would get Rs 118 per quintal and the "early variety" would get Rs 123 per quintal.
The bench, also including Justice P Sathasivam, however, made it clear that if the payment had been done above the fixed price then no recovery would be made by the mill owners and also no interest would be paid to the farmers for the delay in payment.
The petitioners had appealed against the December 19 order of the High Court quashing the state advised price (SAP) of sugarcane fixed by Uttar Pradesh for crushing season 2006-07 and directing its revision within three months.
The high court had also suggested the constitution of an expert committee, including representatives of cane unions, the union Government and other agencies.
The high court order was passed on petitions filed by several private sugar mills, challenging fixation of SAP, alleging that the price was fixed arbitrarily without any guidelines or norms.
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