High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur (Justice Amitendra Kishore Prasad, order dated 24/06/2026) — nine clubbed writ petitions, W.P.C. Nos. 3060, 3065, 3066, 3067, 3074, 3078, 3089, 3091 & 3097 of 2026: Managers/In-charges of Paddy Procurement Centers of Cooperative Societies (working under Respondent No.7, the Deputy Registrar) challenged arbitrary directions compelling them to fill the alleged paddy-procurement ('Zero Shortage') shortage at their own cost, facing threat of FIR and coercive financial recovery for natural dryness (moisture-evaporation) shortages, and sought parity with the 5% dryness allowance extended to Rice Millers, reimbursement of expenditure incurred protecting paddy after 31st March, zero-shortage incentive (Protsahan) amount, and restraint against police pressure. State and MARKFED opposed, stating the Paddy Procurement Policy for Session 2025-2026 has no dryage-benefit provision and itself provides a transportation mechanism. HELD: (i) under clauses 15.9 and 16.3 of the Policy, no dryage is generally permitted, and clause 16.3 requires the Society itself to arrange transportation (expenses adjusted by MARKFED) where MARKFED fails to transport; the dryage ground therefore cannot be adjudicated by the Court without ignoring the Policy terms; (ii) the petitioners entered into an Agreement containing clause 5.6 (reproduced in the judgment) and Clause 13, a dispute-resolution mechanism referred to by the Court as the arbitration clause; (iii) an alternative and efficacious remedy exists by invoking arbitration Clause 13, which the petitioners ought to have invoked; the writ petitions were accordingly not entertained and stand disposed of, the petitioners being relegated to the arbitration remedy, with directions to the concerned authorities to consider and decide such disputes in accordance with law and liberty to initiate and conduct arbitration proceedings and pass reasoned orders after affording due opportunity of hearing. The Court expressly recorded no opinion on the merits. No precedent was cited and no costs or monetary award were made.
