The Karnataka High Court has upheld the State Government action in bifurcating two Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee(APMC)s of Kolar district into three APMCs, while dismissing a set of petitions by concerned APMC members.
The petitions by TC Dasaraiah and several other members of Gowribidanur and Chikkaballapur APMCs had challenged the validity of Government notification dated Feb 13, 2007.
The petitioners were members of erstwhile Chikkaballapur APMC that covered Chikballapur, Siddlaghatta and Bagepalli taluks and Gouribidanur APMC that covered Gouribidanur and Gudibande taluks of Kolar district.
Bifurcated
The impugned notification had bifurcated these two APMCs into Chikkaballapur APMC to cover Chikballapur and Siddlaghatta taluks, Gouribidanur APMC to cover Gouribidanur taluk alone and Bagepalli APMC to cover Bagepalli and Gudibande taluks.
The petitioners had sought the Court to quash the bifurcation notification while stating that it led to curtailing their tenure of five years available till June 2, 2010 and had appointed administrators for the three newly constituted APMCs.
Justice NK Patil observed that the Government had taken a policy decision after following due procedure under Karnataka APM (Regulation) Act, and in the larger interest of public and beneficiary farmers, traders and commission agents.
Objections
The judge also noted that the Government had issued  a draft notification and considered objections from public before passing the final notification.