VISHVANATH GANESH JAVDEKAR Vs. GIPRAILWAY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiff in this case is a pleader residing at Dhulia. On the 2 March, 1917 he took a third class ticket for Bhusawal at the Dhulia Station, He took his seat naturally, so the plaint says, in the third class compartment reserved for Europeans and Anglo-Indians of the railway train which was to start from Dhulia on the same evening. The Station Master thereafter illegally asked the plaintiff to quit the carriage on the ground that the said compartment was reserved by the Railway Company for Europeans and Anglo-Indians. The plaintiff, thereupon, in order to avoid disturbance, reluctantly got out of the carriage and took his seat in another compartment. He then filed this suit to recover from the defendant Railway Company Rs. 5 as damages and for a perpetual injunction restraining the Railway Company from preventing the plaintiff from entering a compartment of a railway carriage reserved for Europeans and Anglo- Indians.

(2.) The defendant Company by its written statement contended that the suit was not maintainable and that the Court had no jurisdiction to entertain it. The Company admitted the contents of the first clause of para 1 to the plaint to be substantially correct, but alleged that the plaintiff was in the compartment with two other companions and denied the plaintiff's allegation that he took his seat naturally in the compartment. The Company further alleged that the plaintiff intentionally entered the compartment well knowing that he had no right to go there and with the desire that the railway officials would remove him so as to enable him to bring the suit.

(3.) The first issue was, whether the question of the defendant Railway Company's right to reserve a saparate compartment for Europeans and Anglo-Indians could be tried by the Court. The second issue was, whether the jurisdiction of the Court was barred under Section 41 of the Indian Railways Act, 1890. The learned trial Judge found the first issue in the negative, the second issue, in the affirmative, and dismissed the suit. In Railway the decree of the lower Court was confirmed.