ZILA PARISHAD GURDASPUR Vs. ROSHAN LAL KUTHIALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment will dispose of Regular First Appeal Nos. 4 to 10 and 12 of 1968 which involve a common question of law. For the purpose of this judgment, the facts as available on the record of Regular First Appeal No. 4 of 1968 have only been noticed.

(2.) The facts of these appeals depend on the determination of the date on which the plaintiff came to know of the mistake of law within the meaning of Section 17(1)(c) of the Limitation Act 1963 (hereinafter called the Act) under which the suit money was paid by him to the District Board, Gurdaspur (hereinafter referred to as the Board) as sleeper tax imposed by virtue of Notification No. 11992/LD-58/13577, dated April 23, 1959. This notification was declared ultra vires in Regular Second Appeal No. 815 of 1962 (The District Board Gurdaspur v. Timber Traders Association, Pathankot) decided on December 17, 1963 by this Court.

(3.) The facts necessary for the determination of the said question and which are not disputed between the parties, in brief, are that the Board by virtue of the notification referred to above imposed sleeper tax at the rate of six paise per sleeper imported into the area of District Board Gurdaspur. The Timber Merchants Association, Pathankot, a registered body, filed a suit in the Court of Senior Sub-Judge, Gurdaspur for declaration that the sleeper tax imposed was illegal, unconstitutional and ultra vires of the provisions of the District Boards (Punjab) Act, 1883, which was decreed by the said Court on December 20, 1960. This judgment was, however, reversed by the learned District Judge, Gurdaspur, on appeal, by the Board, vide judgment dated June 7, 1962, but was restored in second appeal by this Court in Regular Second Appeal No. 815 of 1962, decided on December 17, 1963. Dissatisfied with the judgment of the learned single Judge, the Board filed the Letters Patent Appeal No. 395 of 1964 which was dismissed vide judgment, Exhibit P8, dated Mach 24, 1966.