LOUIS DREYFUS AND CO LTD BY ITS THEN MANAGER RICHARD HOWARD POLLARD AND THE PRESENT MANAGER JOHN GREENWOOD Vs. SOUTH ARCOT GROUNDNUT MARKET COMMITTEE BY ITS PRESIDENT, ALAKSHMINARAYANA REDDIAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These three appeals arise out of three suits that were tried together in the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Cuddalore because they gave rise to identical questions of fact and law. In each suit, the plaintiff was a company purchasing groundnuts and exporting them from Cuddalore in the South Arcot district. The common defendant in the three suits was "The South Arcot Groundnut Market Committee" by its President. That Committee was established under Section 5 of the Madras Commercial Crops Act of 1933; and in exercise of the powers conferred upon it by the Act, it claimed fees on sales of groundnuts to the three plaintiff firms. The plaintiffs paid what was demanded of them and filed these three suits for the return of the sums paid by them.

(2.) Two questions have been argued in these appeals : one is whether the sales and purchases in question were within the South Arcot district, and the other is whether the defendant committee had power to levy these fees, in view of the feet that the plaintiffs sold the property, they say, outside the district The learned Subordinate Judge decided these and other questions against the plaintiffs, who have appealed to this Court.

(3.) For the purpose of argument two contracts entered into with Louis Dreyfus & Co., Ltd., the plaintiff in O.S. No. 38 of 1942, have been referred to. The contracts entered into with the other companies are of a similar nature; and it is conceded that if it is found, on a perusal of the documents relating to the Louis Dreyfus & Co., Ltd., that the sale and purchase took place within the South Arcot district, the sales and purchases in the other suits also took place within the South Arcot district.