SMT. ASHALATA PAL Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner is a registered dealer having registration No. 3925 of West Bengal State Lottery for selling West Bengal State Lottery tickets and she carries on such business in her retail shop situated at No. 89 Bipin Behari Ganguly Street, Calcutta -12, According to the petitioner the terms and conditions of such dealership and agency are that the Director of State Lottery would sell and the dealer would purchase such number of lottery tickets as may be requisitioned by the dealer, on payment of full price thereof according to the face value of such tickets. After such purchase the dealer would become the absolute owner or all tickets so purchased by him/her and would be entitled to sell and transfer them from his/her shop to his/her customers by realising the face value. It is stated by the petitioner that the tickets so purchased by the dealer but which would remain unsold by him are not returnable to the Directorate of the State Lottery. The dealer's remuneration is a certain fixed amount on the value of each price, if there is any prize -winning ticket at all amongst the tickets purchased by the dealer

(2.) THE petitioner in course of her said business and as dealer of tickets purchased 600 tickets in a lot from the Director of State Lotteries paying full price thereof and as such she acquired full ownership and complete title in respect of the tickets so purchased by her. The above purchase is covered by Bill No. 70156 dated January 7, 1978. The tickets were purchased by the petitioner for the purpose of selling them in course of her business from her said place of business. It is further stated by the petitioner that she could not sell a single ticket from the said bunch of 600 tickets as the same was stolen from the selling counter of the petitioner's shop on the very day of its purchase while she, the petitioner, along with her daughter was busy in selling tickets of the other State Lotteries at the said counter. On the very same day immediately after such theft the petitioner lodged a police diary (report) in the local police station at Muchi para being G. D. Entry No. 1359 dated January 17, 1978. Thereafter, on January 19, 1978 the petitioner informed about the fact of the theft of the said 600 tickets to the Director of the State Lottery, West Bengal as also of the fact that the petitioner could not sell a single ticket out of the said lot i. e., 600 tickets.

(3.) IN her petition the petitioner has challenged the said order of the Director on the following grounds : '(a) The letter dated 25 -4 -78 of the Director of State Lottery West Bengal is illegal, ultra vires, wrong and hence liable to be cancelled, withdrawn and quashed. (b) Rule 19 (2) of the West Bengal State Lottery Rules, 1968 should be declared to be a rule of procedure for convenience of business and should not be treated as a bar to the exercise of the fundamental right of property, guaranteed under Article 19(1)(f) of the Constitution of India. (c) The interpretation sought to be put by the authorities in charge of the West Bengal Lottery upon Rule No. 19 (2) mentioned above is illegal, ultra vires and not tenable and is not binding upon your petitioner as it offends the principle of natural justice. (d) It is fundamental principle of law of interpretation that every Rule should be so interpreted if possible as to avoid illegality and conflict with the laws of the land in force and that this elementary principle of Law has not been followed by the respondents in the instant case. (e) For that in case the aforesaid Rule 19 (2) of West Bengal State Lottery Rules 1968 is found to debar any rightful claimant from enforcing his claim, without producing the relevant ticket under circumstances beyond his control, the said rule is liable to be declared ultra vires and void and as such it is liable to be struck down.