Will hear plea for release of funds from Centre, SC assures Punjab

The Supreme Court on Wednesday assured the Punjab Government that it would hear the latter'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).

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A counsel representing the Punjab government urged a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud to take up the matter saying the state’s interim application was listed for hearing on September 2 but it could not be taken up for paucity of time.

The counsel requested the Bench to issue a notice to the Centre on the Punjab Government’s plea to ensure that a response came on record before the matter was taken up for hearing.

"We will list the IA (interim application) for the hearing," the CJI said, without issuing a notice to the Centre on the state’s plea.

Earlier, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi also mentioned the plea for an urgent hearing.

The Supreme Court had on August 30 said it would hear on September 2 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 RDF.

The CJI-led Bench – which could not take up the matter on August 12 due to paucity of time – had posted it for hearing on September 2 following a joint request made by Attorney General R Venkataramani and Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh.

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 the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction in a dispute between the Centre and one or more states; or a dispute between two or more states.

The levies are important in 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 of Rs 3637 crore from 2021 and market fees of Rs 2,400 crore from 2022.

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