Controlled price fixation and territorial jurisdiction: interim writ orders cannot replace statutory pricing power or create forum jurisdiction.
A High Court cannot, by an interim writ order, substitute its own judgment for the statutory authority's power to fix or revise a controlled retention price under the Paper (Control) Order; if the notified price is unsustainable, the proper course is final judicial review and reconsideration by the authority, not temporary judicial enhancement. Writ jurisdiction also cannot be invoked without a real part of the cause of action arising within the court's territorial limits. Where the petitioners' mills and registered offices were outside the State, the control order was made elsewhere, and no material showed relevant sales or stock in the forum State, the petitions were not entertainable and the interim orders were vacated.
Issues: (i) Whether the High Court could, by an interim order, enhance or fix the retention price of white printing paper under the Paper (Control) Order made under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955; (ii) Whether the writ petitions were entertainable by the High Court in the absence of any part of the cause of action arising within its territorial jurisdiction.
Issue (i): Whether the High Court could, by an interim order, enhance or fix the retention price of white printing paper under the Paper (Control) Order made under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.
Analysis: The object of the statutory control was supply, equitable distribution and availability of the essential commodity at a fair price, and the power to fix or revise the retention price lay with the Central Government under the control order. Even if the notified price was open to challenge on merits, the court could not, at the interim stage, substitute its own price for that fixed by the statutory authority. The appropriate course, if the price was found unsustainable, was to set it aside at final hearing and direct reconsideration, not to increase it temporarily by judicial order.
Conclusion: The High Court had no jurisdiction to fix or enhance the retention price by interim order.
Issue (ii): Whether the writ petitions were entertainable by the High Court in the absence of any part of the cause of action arising within its territorial jurisdiction.
Analysis: The mills and registered offices of the writ petitioners were situated outside West Bengal, the control order was made in New Delhi, and there was no averment of any sale of levy paper or stock in West Bengal. The mere presence of sales offices in Calcutta or receipt of allotment letters there did not establish that any part of the cause of action had arisen within the territorial limits of the High Court.
Conclusion: The High Court had no territorial jurisdiction to entertain the writ petitions.
Final Conclusion: The interim orders were unsustainable both because the court could not assume the statutory power to determine the retention price and because the writ petitions lacked territorial foundation before the High Court. The appeals therefore succeeded and the impugned interim orders were vacated.
Ratio Decidendi: A High Court cannot, by an interim writ order, usurp a statutory authority's power to fix a controlled price, and writ jurisdiction cannot be invoked without a real part of the cause of action arising within the court's territorial limits.
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