B G YADAV Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These writ petitions under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India seek an appropriate writ, order or direction declaring that entry "GX" in Alphabetical List of All Indian Railway stations has no application- in respect of the washery sinks, middlings, washery rejects, etc., and alternatively to declare that entry "GX" in the Alphabetical List of railway stations is ultra vires Arts. 14, 19(1) (g) and 301 of the Constitution.

(2.) So far as the challenge of the petitioners to the vires of the entry "GX" in the alphabetical list of All Indian Railway stations is concerned, the matter is concluded against the petitioners by a recent decision of the Supreme Court in "Viklad Coal Merchant, Patiala v. Union of India", AIR 1984 SC 95. The petitioners before the Supreme Court were also coal traders and undertook supply of coal and coke throughout India. They had also alleged the violation of Art. 14, in that, while certain transporters of coal had been accorded priority in the matter of transport of coal such as the Central and the State Governments and the sponsored and recommended transporters, the petitioners who were coal merchants were denied equality of opportunity in the matter of transport of coal by Railway. Their further grievance was that total prohibition of booking and transport of coal as requested by the petitioners, by the railway administration, an instrumentality of the State envisaged by Art. 12, imposes an unreasonable restriction on their fundamental freedom to carry on trade guaranteed by Art 19(l)(g) of the Constitution and hence the impugned orders are invalid. Their Lordships held that the priority given to Central or State Government and others by orders issued under S. 27-A of the Railways Act was not violative of Art. 14 of the Constitution. Order No.TCR/1510/71 dated April 1, 1972 introduced the provisions "GX" and (Sic) opening to all railway stations denoting that each such station is not open for outward booking of coal, coalshale, lignite, patent fuel, soft coke and hard coke in wagon loads was urged as violating S. 28 because thereby the Railway administration has subjected the petitioners as well as the coal offered for transport to an undue and unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in the matter of coal. Their Lordships of the Supreme Court after considering the priority list came to the conclusion that the wagons had to be made available for priority bookings as sponsored and recommended by the sponsoring authorities. If the law of demand and supply and non-availability of facility for loading coal in smalls at wayside stations result in not making available wagons to the petitioners because of pre-planning and priority it cannot be said that there has been a total ban on the transport of coal offered by the petitioners by the railways, which would violate the fundamental freedom to carry on their trade guaranteed to the petitioners under Art. 19(l)(g). If the impugned orders constitute a restriction on the freedom of carrying on trade, the same is reasonable and imposed in larger public interest

(3.) The only question that survives for decision in these writ petitions is whether or not the prohibition of booking of coal from stations has any application to the case of washery sinks, middlings, washery rejects, etc. Mr. Aggarwal, the learned counsel for the petitioners took me at great length through the pleadings of the parties on the record to contend that washery sinks, middlings and washery rejects cannot be said to be coal or any other goods as mentioned in the relevant entry and do not come under the entry "GX". It is pleaded that the petitioners are carrying on business of supplying washery rejects, middlings and washery sinks after purchasing the same from various washeries in India and also from authorised dealers of the same. The petitioners are also supplying mixed coke, nut coke, breeze coke and coke rejects after purchasing the same from the beehive country ovens and authorised dealers. The petitioners also deal in coal rejects. The various industries using coal in their factories are screening coal after purchasing it from collieries before using the same in boiler and as a result of screening, coal in very small size is rejected and is known as coal rejects. The petitioners purchase the said coal rejects and supply to their various customers. The high grades of coal with less ash contents are sent to washeries for using the same for generating heat in steel plants, foundry and other manufacturing plants where constant high temperature is required to be maintained. In the washery after washing the coal the ash contents are reduced and the burning capacity of coal is increased. A washery is a coal preparation plant in which cleaning process is carried out by wet methods. After washing the coal in the washery the high grades of coal with less ash content are taken out and the left out materials are known as washery sink, middlings and/or rejects with little burning capacity and sold for use where high grade of heat is not at all required. With these averments, the counsel urges me to draw an inference that washery sinks, middlings and rejects are not coal within the meaning of the entry "GX". Reference is made to the Glossary of Terms Relating to Solid Mineral Fuels issued by the Indian Standards Institution which defines the term coal as "A fossilized solid fuel of vegetative origin". The counsel wants me to restrict the meaning of coal to the term as defined in the said clause. It is also contended that washery sink, washery reject and middlings are commercially known as different products and are used as substitute of coal. Nobody in the trade purchases washery sink, washery rejects and middlings as coal and, therefore, they cannot be said to be covered by entry "GX".