Market fee liability depends on whether delivery or weighment in the notified area completes the sale in law.

Liability to market fee under the statutory scheme turns on whether a sale or purchase is deemed to have occurred within the notified market area. The rule applies where the agreement is entered into there, or where the produce is weighed or delivered there in pursuance of the agreement. The analysis explains that, on the stated facts, the contracts provided for delivery and final weighment at the mills, so the deeming provision operated because those acts formed part of the completed transaction in law. Market fee was therefore chargeable on transactions falling within the deeming rule, while only legally effective delivery and weighment could be considered.

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Issues: Whether market fee was leviable under the statutory scheme when the agricultural produce was agreed to be purchased outside the market area but was weighed and/or delivered within the notified market area, so as to attract the deeming provision governing sales in that area.

Analysis: Liability to market fee under the Act depends on whether the transaction amounts to a sale or purchase within the notified market area. The relevant rule deems agricultural produce to have been bought or sold in that area if the agreement is entered into there, or if in pursuance of the agreement the produce is weighed there, or if it is delivered there to the purchaser or his agent. On the facts, the contracts contemplated delivery and final weighment at the mills, and the statutory deeming provision operated where delivery and weighment in the market area formed part of the completed transaction. The Court therefore accepted the applicability of the rule, while clarifying that only delivery and weighment sufficient in law to complete the sale could be taken into account.

Conclusion: Market fee was leviable on transactions falling within the deeming provision, and the challenge to the demand failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the governing rule deems a transaction to be bought or sold in a notified market area on the basis of delivery or weighment there, market fee is chargeable if those acts constitute part of the completed sale in law.

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