Co-operative farm societies entitled to same power subsidies as individual farmers: Karnataka HC
The Karnataka High Court has observed that cooperative farmer societies would be entitled to claim power subsidies on the lines of individual farmers, noting that it would be unconstitutional to deal with the groups differently.
The order passed last month by a Single Judge Bench of Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum was recently made public.
'Farmers who organise themselves into societies to share irrigation resources and reduce costs should be incentivized, not penalized. The denial of the subsidy for collective consumption contradicts the purpose of the subsidy, which is to support the farming community,' the court held, while directing authorities to frame guidelines to extend power subsidies to farmer societies.
In this case, office-bearers of certain farmer societies had approached the court regarding a lift irrigation project that they had constructed on the River Krishna in Athani Taluk to benefit around 300 acres of land, arguing that the societies, unlike individual farmers, were not able to access subsidies for the benefit of marginalised farmers.
The counsel for the societies argued that this was a case where the subsidised power supply was denied to them only because they were in a society.
He argued that this was an arbitrary act since the power consumption between the societies and individuals was the same on a per capita basis.
The opposing counsel representing Hubli Electricity Supply Company (HESCOM) stated that bills were raised proportionate to the power consumption of the society, and they were bound to pay the outstanding bills, while the societies had assented to the conditions of the agreement in 2016.
The Advocate General representing the state also pointed out that the farmers could avail of a subsidy on an individual basis, but having joined the society, they could not do so, having exceeded the limit on power consumption.
It was also argued that the petition of the societies had only been commenced after HESCOM initiated recovery proceedings for the outstanding bills.
While considering the matter, the court stated, 'The central issue arises from whether denying power tariff subsidies to societies of farmers while granting the subsidy to individual farmers constitutes an arbitrary classification and violates the principle of equality enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution…. The current classification between individual farmers and farmer societies is arbitrary and lacks a rational nexus with the objective of the subsidy'.
However, the court noted that apart from the matter of subsidy, the societies would still have to settle the outstanding payment with HESCOM and could not use the argument of restrictions during the Covid period.
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