KISHORI MOHAN GHOSH Vs. AMIR ALI MULLICK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THERE is a ferry service known as Budge-Budge Ferry. A service as this conveys passengers, with their belongings in a boat across the Gunga, from Chitraganj in the district of 24-Parganas, on the south, to Bauria in the district of Howrah, on the north.

(2.) ONE Kishori Mohan Ghose (for short, Kishori hereafter) a and, his predecessors have been, running this fray for years from 1922 or thereabouts, formerly under the District Board, 24-Parganas, and then under Zilla Parishad 24-Pgs. Subject to periodic bids as the settlement of the ferry service was, an auction was held on April 10, 1962, for leasing it out. And Kishori was the highest bidder. So, for a term of about three years from April 10, 1962, to March 31, 1965, he had had the lease to run the ferry at a rent of Rs. 18,250 a year which, indeed, was his bid - the highest.

(3.) AS the financial year 1965 was about to close - with the closing of which Kishori's term was to expire -another auction was held, after the usual preliminaries, on February 23, 1965, when the bid of Rs. 50. 000 a year by one Amir All Mullick (for short Amir hereafter) was the highest. Kishori was a participant too, but an unsuccessful one, in that auction. So, for the next three years from April 1, 1965, to March. 31, 1968, Amir was to run the ferry, in the normal course of events. But events moved in another way. This is the month of July 1966. Kishori, out bidden though he was in the auction of February 23, 1965, still runs the ferry. Amir, the highest bidder though he then was, does not.