BABU RAM SINGHAL Vs. STATE OF U. P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a plaintiffs appeal who succeeded before the trial court but failed before the lower appellate court.

(2.) There is a public ferry maintained by the defendant State of Uttar Pradesh on river Yamuna on Etawah-Gwalior road called the Rajghat ferry, Etawah. The toll of this ferry was let out by public auction for a period of three .years beginning from Oct. 1, 1956 to the plaintiff on annual rent of Rupees 47,666/10/8. A document of lease (Ext. 1) was duly executed under which the plaintiff secured exclusive right of collecting the toll at the rates specified in Schedule II of the lease. The plaintiff continued to collect toll at those rates until the rates were varied with effect from Oct. 1, 1958 through a notification dated April 30, 1958. This variation, according to the plaintiff, caused diminution in the collection made by him and occasioned a loss of Rs. 11882/06 between Oct. 1, 1958 and the date of the suit filed in Feb., 1959.

(3.) The case of the plaintiff, in substance, in the suit was that the State of Uttar Pradesh had no right to vary the rates of the toll during the subsistence of the period of lease and that by doing so it had committed a breach of contract resulting in damages which the plaintiff was entitled to receive. In the alternative, it was pleaded by the plaintiff that, in any case, he was entitled to an abatement of rent which had not been allowed to it. He sought a sum of Rs. 10,000.00only as damages for the loss occasioned to him on the aforesaid variation. The plaintiffs grievance also was that the defendant failed to give allowance to him for the loss suffered by him on account of the change in the rates in spite of repeated approach. Hence, the necessity for a suit for declaration about the invalidity of the action of the defendant in altering the rates through the impugned notification dated April 30, 1958 and for recovery of the amount of Rs. 10,000/'-as damages.