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TMI Blog2016 (10) TMI 1229X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ty, "the Act"). 2. The High Court, for the sake of convenience, has stated the facts as adumbrated in W.P. No. 11512 of 2015 and, therefore, we shall advert to the facts of the said writ petition. Needless to say, the averments in all the writ petitions are fundamentally the same. 3. The Petitioners in the said writ petition were appointed as Chairmen of Agricultural Market Committees by the State for a term of 3 years. It is worthy to note that vide G.O. Rt. No. 435 dated 04.03.2013 the Government of Andhra Pradesh in exercise of powers conferred Under Section 6(1) read with Sub-sections (1) and (2) of the Section 5 of the Act constituted the Agricultural Market Committee, Kubeer, Adilabad District with one B. Chandra Shekar as Chairman and others as members. It was mentioned that the said B. Chandra Shekar was nominated as Chairman and one D. Dattaram as Vice-Chairman and 16 others as members. Similar notifications were issued in respect of other Agricultural Market Committees vide notifications dated 04.03.2013, 31.08.2013, 18.11.2013, 27.11.2013 and after such nomination the persons who were nominated as Chairman, Vice-Chairman and members continued in their respective assign ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... dance with the provisions of Section 5 of the principal Act as amended by this Ordinance. [Emphasis added] 6. After the Ordinance was issued, the Agriculture and Cooperation (MKT. I) Department vide G.O.MS. No. 11 dated 18.08.2014 passed the following order: In pursuance of an Ordinance issued in the reference 3rd read above and in accordance with Clause (3) of the Andhra Pradesh (Agricultural Produce and Livestock) Markets (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014, all the members, Vice-Chairmen and Chairmen of the existing Market Committees shall cease to hold office. The Commissioner and Director of Agricultural Marketing, Telangana, Hyderabad is directed to appoint a person or persons with immediate effect to exercise the powers and perform the functions of each Market Committee until the Market Committee is re-constituted in accordance with the provisions of Section 5 of the Telangana (Agricultural Produce and Livestock) Markets Act, 1966 as amended by an Ordinance in the 3rd read above. 2. The Commissioner and Director of Agricultural Marketing, Telangana, Hyderabad shall take further necessary action in the matter accordingly. 7. The Ordinance and the consequent order passed ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in one class and treated differently from other groups in the same office viz., future members and office bearers of the market committee. xxxxx We, therefore, accepting the contention of the learned Counsel for the writ Petitioners while overruling that of the learned Advocate General hold Clause-3 of the said Ordinance is not constitutionally valid. Accordingly, the same is struck down. In view of this declaration and striking down, consequential Government Order issued pursuant thereto is also void and illegal, the same is also struck down and that the Petitioners and each of them shall be restored to their respective positions. We accordingly direct the Government to do so forthwith. 9. After the judgment of the High Court in Writ Petition No. 24877 of 2014 and connected matters, the Government of Telangana issued Ordinance No. 1 of 2015 dated 13.02.2015 to amend Section 5 of the Act. The Ordinance was challenged before the High Court which issued notice and directed status quo to be maintained with regard to functioning of the market committee. In due course, the Amendment Act No. 5 of 2015 came into force. The said Amendment Act is called the Telangana ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tee, including meetings which for want of quorum could not be held. Explanation: For the purposes of the second proviso, no meeting of the market committee from which a member absents himself shall be counted against him if due notice of that meeting was not given to him. x x x xx (5) The Government may, by notification, remove the Chairman or Vice-Chairman, who in their opinion willfully omits or refuses to carry out or disobeys the provisions of this Act or any Rules or bye-laws of lawful orders issued hereunder or abuses his position or the power vested in him, after giving him an opportunity for explanation, and the said notification shall contain a statement of the reasons of the Government for the action taken. (6) Any person removed under Sub-section (5) from the office of Chairman or Vice-Chairman shall be ineligible for appointment to either of the said offices, until the date of next reconstitution of the market committee under Sub-section (1) of Section 6. (7) Any other member of a market committee may, at any time, be removed from office by the Government for such reasons and after such inquiry, as may be prescribed. 11. Section 6 of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... (1)- (a) in the opening paragraph, for the word "eighteen" the word "fourteen" shall be substituted; (b) in Clause (i), for the word "eleven", the word "eight" and for the word "appointed", the word "nominated" shall be substituted respectively; (c) in the second proviso to Clause (i) for the word "five", the word "three" shall be substituted; (d) in Clause (ii) for the word "three", the word "two" and for the word "appointed", the word "nominated" shall be substituted respectively. (e) in Clause (iii), for the word "appointed", the word "nominated" shall be substituted. (2) In Sub-section (2), for the word "appointed", occurring at two places, the word "nominated" shall be substituted; (3) for Sub-section (3) along with the first proviso thereunder, the following shall be substituted, namely- (3) Save as otherwise provided in this Act, the term of office of the members nomin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of this Act, their continuation in the office from the date of expiring of their term, are validated in all respects, as if they deemed to have been validly nominated for the said period. 16. Before the High Court, as the impugned order depicts, the principal challenge was to Section 5 of the Act whereby the term of the market committee was reduced from three years to one year by giving retrospective effect in the Amendment Act. It was contended before the High Court that the Amendment Act had no rationale or nexus to the objects sought to be achieved through the retrospective operation of the Amendment Act and Section 5(3) which has reduced the term is ex facie illegal, discriminatory and suffers from vice of absolute unreasonableness. A contention was advanced that the Amendment Act so far as market committees are concerned is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution as special market committees have been left out from such reduction of term. 17. It may be noted here that during the final disposal of the matter, the High Court took note of the question framed at the initial stage which is as follows: Whether the Legislature while making an enactment can flout the constitut ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... udgment has been removed to erase the effect of the judgment? c) Whether by virtue of the amendment the vested rights have been affected? d) Whether the amended provisions suffer from the vice of the equality Clause as enshrined Under Article 14 of the Constitution? 23. We shall deal first point first. The Reorganization Act came into force on 02.06.2014. Submission is, prior to the said date, the legislature that was not in existence as an entity could not have legislated relating to some aspect that covers the prior period. The aforesaid submission should not detain us long. In M/s. Rattan Lal and Co. and Anr. etc v. The Assessing Authority, Patiala and Anr.: AIR 1970 SC 1742 the Court was dealing with competence of State of Haryana pertaining to a legislation enacted by State of Haryana by way of an amendment prior to the reorganisation of the State. In that context the Court held: It is argued that the reorganisation of the State took place on November 1, 1966 and the amendment in some of its parts seeks to amend the original Act from a date anterior to this date. In other words, the legislature of one of the States s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ceeded to state that validation of a tax so declared illegal may be done only if the grounds of illegality or invalidity are capable of being removed and are in fact removed and the tax thus made legal. The legislature does it many a way. One of the methods it may adopt is to give its own meaning and interpretation of the law under which tax was collected and by legislative fiat makes the new meaning binding upon courts. On such legislation being brought, it neutralizes the effect of the earlier decision as a consequence of which it becomes ineffective. The test of validity of a validating law depends upon whether the Legislature possesses the competence which it claims over the subject-matter and whether in making the validation it removes the defect which the courts had found in the existing law and makes adequate provisions in the validating law for a valid imposition of the tax. 25. In Bhubaneshwar Singh and Anr. v. Union of India and Ors.: (1994) 6 SCC 77 in view of Section 3 of the Coking Coal Mines (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1971 which has promulgated in the year 1971 the custodian being appointed by the Central Government took over the management of Coking Coal Mines and ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... uch coal or other assets. Section 19 was the validating provision. 26. The writ petition was filed questioning the validity of the said ordinance primarily on the ground that it purported to nullify the judgment rendered in the case of Central Coal Fields Ltd. v. Bhubaneswar Singh and Ors.: (1984) 4 SCC 429. The Court referred to the provisions and opined that: ...if Sub-section (2) as introduced by the Coal Mines Nationalisation Laws (Amendment) Act, 1986 in Section 10 had existed since the very inception, there was no occasion for the High Court or this Court to issue a direction for taking into account the price which was payable for the stock of coke lying on the date before the appointed day. The authority to introduce Sub-section (2) in Section 10 of the aforesaid Act with retrospective effect cannot be questioned. Once the amendment has been introduced retrospectively, courts have to act on the basis that such provision was there since the beginning. The role of the deeming provision need not be emphasised in view of series of judgments of this Court. Hence reading Sub-section (2) of Section 10 along with Section 19, it has to be held that Respondents ar ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as an encroachment upon judicial power when the legislature does not directly overrule or reverse a judicial dictum. The legislature cannot, by way of an enactment, declare a decision of the court as erroneous or a nullity, but can amend the statute or the provision so as to make it applicable to the past. The legislature has the power to rectify, through an amendment, a defect in law noticed in the enactment and even highlighted in the decision of the court. This plenary power to bring the statute in conformity with the legislative intent and correct the flaw pointed out by the court, can have a curative and neutralizing effect. When such a correction is made, the purpose behind the same is not to overrule the decision of the court or encroach upon the judicial turf, but simply enact a fresh law with retrospective effect to alter the foundation and meaning of the legislation and to remove the base on which the judgment is founded. This does not amount to statutory overruling by the legislature. In this manner, the earlier decision of the court becomes non-existent and unenforceable for interpretation of the new legislation. No doubt, the new legislation can be tested and challeng ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat by such an amendment the vested right of the Appellants has been affected. It is noticeable that under the scheme of the Act, the word "appointed" as was used in the earlier provision was really not an appointment which can be equated to a post under the service jurisprudence. The members were meant to be members for the purpose of composition of market committee. What is urged is that the members, the Chairmen and the Vice-Chairmen had a fixed term, who could be removed after inquiry or under certain conditions. Our attention has been drawn to Sub-section (5) of Section 6 but after the amendment the members had ceased to become members prior to expiry of their tenure, that is, three years. We may make it clear that the competent authority of the State Government still can remove member or Vice-Chairman or Chairman taking recourse to other provisions prior to expiry of the period. The grievance of the Appellants is that the period is curtailed and the vested right is affected. The argument is that it could not have been done by retrospective amendment of the provision. The aforesaid argument suffers from a fallacy. The members were not elected. They were not appointed by any ki ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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