NRISINGHA PROSAD RAKSHIT Vs. COMMISSIONERS OF BHADRESWAR MUNICIPALITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the plaintiff, whose suit for recovery of damages against the defendant Municipality to the extent of Rs.1,000 or more, succeeds in part (for Rs.842.62 paise only) in the Court of first instance, but fails wholly in the court of appeal below.

(2.) The facts which have led to this litigation need not be referred to further than as follows: 10 Abhayananda Lane, situate within the jurisdiction of the defendant Municipality, is the plaintiff's. He had a coal depot there, as also two monthly tenants. On May 15, 1953, the defendant Municipality served an order of demolition of the said premises. The plaintiff stalled that order, by having obtained an injunction on May 26, 1953, from the local civil court, (Title Suit No. 141 of 1953), - an injunction which was made absolute on terms on July 31,1953, but only on the foot of an undertaking to court that he himself would do the demolition, he did what he had undertaken to do, but only in part. In part, because he could not lay his hands on the portion the tenants were in occupation of. Result : the injunction was lifted, and the Municipality, as ordered by the Court, did the demolition, left unfinished by the plaintiff. In the process of having done so, the Municipality, it is said acted in haste, and, worse still, with grudge and malice against the plaintiff, not even allowing his modest prayer to remove 2128 maunds of coal then stocked in his depot. That rendered the coal unfit for sale, got mixed up as it had with debris. Hence the suit for damages laid at a minimal sum of Rs.1,000, after the usual, legal notice.

(3.) A suit as this was resisted by the Municipality on two pleas, leaving aside those no longer insisted upon. One, in having carried out the work of demolition, the Municipality did no more than act under the order of the Court, without any trace of negligence anywhere. Two, the plaintiff, in reality, suffered no damages.