Supreme Court defers to September 2 hearing on Punjab govt's plea for urgent release of over Rs 1,000 crore RDF and market fees dues from Centre

Satya Prakash

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New Delhi, August 12

The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred to September 2 the hearing on the Punjab Government’s plea seeking an urgent release of over Rs 1,000 crore from the Centre on account of alleged dues of Market Fees and Rural Development Fees (RDF).

A Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud could not take up the matter due to paucity of time on Monday.

The Bench, however, agreed to hear the Punjab Government’s plea on September 2 after Attorney General R Venkataramani and Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh jointly made a request in this regard.

The Punjab Government had last year filed a suit before the Supreme Court against the Centre over the non-reimbursement of statutory fees allegedly running into thousands of crores of rupees that the state government had levied on behalf of the Central Government during the procurement of food grains.

In its original suit filed under Article 131 of the Constitution, the State of Punjab complained against the Centre for refusing to transfer back the statutory Market Fees and Rural Development Fees levied by the state on behalf of the Centre.

Article 131 of the Constitution deals with original jurisdiction of the top court in a dispute between the Centre and one or more states or a dispute between two or more states.

The levies are key to bearing the expenses of acquiring food grains with minimum transition losses, the State government explained.

The dues on account of RDF were said to be to the tune of Rs 3637 crore from 2021 and market fees to the tune of Rs 2400 crore from 2022.

The Centre’s actions went against the Modified Fixation Principles in place since February 24, 2020, the Punjab Government submitted.