MUNICIPAL COMMITTEE, KALKA Vs. RAJ KISHORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal arises out of a suit brought by Raj Kishore, plaintiff, for a permanent injunction restraining the defendant -Committee from recovering Rs. 2,920/10/9 and Rs. 987/15/9 on the basis of two notices, on account of octroi duty charged on the import of stone material during the years 1952/53.

(2.) THE allegations of the plaintiff were that he had entered into a contract with the Pepsu Government for the carriage of stone material from the Pepsu Government Quarry at village Parwanu. This material was brought to the Railway plots at Kalka, which had been leased out to the Pepsu Government, and from there, the same was loaded into the railway wagons and sent to the destination. This material belonged to the Pepsu Government and was to be utilized for the building of Government roads. On 26th May 1952, vide Exhibit P.W. 5/1, the Executive Engineer, Patiala Division, Buildings and Roads, Patiala, informed the President of the defendant -Committee that their Department had concluded an agreement with the plaintiff -contractor for the supply of road material (bajri, boulders and ballast) to be extracted from the Pepsu Government Quarry at Parwanu for supply to Pepsu Public Works Department in connection with the Government road works and requested the defendant -Committee not to charge octroi duty on the material thus supplied as the same was to be utilized for Government works. Another letter, exhibit P.W. 5/2, was sent by this Executive Engineer on 2nd June 1952 to the President of the defendant -Committee to the same effect, in which the quantity of the material to be supplied viz., 6 lacs c. ft., by the plaintiff was also mentioned. In June 1952 the plaintiff carried the stone material, which passed through the Municipal Area of the defendant -Committee and was then despatched to various destinations as desired by the Pepsu Government. This material was allowed to be deposited on the Railway plots without payment of any octroi duty on the same. During the last elections, Des Raj was elected the president of the defendant -Committee. Since he was not on good terms with the plaintiff, be got two resolutions passed by the defendant -Committee in the years 1954 for the recovery of Rs. 2,920/10/9 and Rs. 987/15/9 as octroi duty from the plaintiff on the import of the above -mentioned stone material into the Municipal Area of the defendant -Committee. This led to the present suit by the plaintiff against the defendant -Committee. The plaintiff alleged that these demands were illegal because he was not the owner of the goods, in respect of which the arrears of octroi duty were being claimed, that the Executive Engineer, Patiala Division, had written two letters to the defendant -Committee and had also issued certificates to the effect that the material which was being carried through the limits of the defendant -Committee, was to be utilised for the construction of the Pepsu Government roads; that these letters and certificates had been duly honoured by the defendant -Committee, which was now estopped from making any demand; and that the defendant Committee was not authorised to levy any octroi duty on the goods which were never imported within the Municipal limits of the defendant -Committee but the same merely passed through the Municipal limits and were handed over to the Railway Administration for safe carriage, to the destination at the Pepsu Government expense for road construction in the Pepsu State.

(3.) ON the pleadings of the parties, the following issues were framed: