B.R.James, J. - (1.) Wharfage is a charge levied by a Railway Administration on goods, the nature and attributes of which charge I shall endeavour to explain presently. Wharfage at the railway station of Kaimganj, district Farrukhabad, is the subject of this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution,
(2.) The petition has arisen in the following circumstances. The Railway Board, which is admittedly the "officer" appointed by the Central Government under Section 47(1) of the Indian Railways Act, 1890 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), in exercise of powers vested in it by Section 47 of the Act, issued a Notification dated 18-2-1926 (hereinafter called the Notification of 1926) framing rules with regard tq wharfage. Only Rules 1 and 17 of this Notification are relevant to this case. Rule 1 provided that after the expiration of a free period (which meant from the time of arrival of the goods till the closing time of the day following) wharfage would be charged at a rate not exceeding one anna per maund or part of a maund per day Or part of a clay calculated on the goods of which delivery had not been taken. Rule 17 was in these terms: "17. If and for so long as the state of the traffic or any sudden emergency makes it necessary and after advertisement in the local newspapers, the rate of demurrage or wharfage may be increased and free time may be curtailed by the Railway Administration." The B. B. and C. I. Railway for many years levied wharfage at the rate given in Rule 1. Then on 16-24950 the Chief Traffic Manager of that Railway issued an order (hereinafter called the Order of 1950 for convenience) enhancing the rate to "one anna per maund per day for the first three days, and two annas per maund per day tor the subsequent period, after two days including day of arrival". This revised rate came into force at Kaimganj on the 1st March 1950. In May 1953 the Kaimganj station, as a result of regrouping of the Indian Railways, came under the control of the North-Eastern Railway, and this Railway adopted the previous rates and has continued to levy wharfage at Kaimganj in accordance with the Order of 1950.
(3.) Now, the rate was lower at some other stations on the same Railway; consequently a number of merchants of Kaimganj combined together to file Writ Petition No. 24 of 1955 seeking to get the Order of 1950 set aside and the Railway prevented from charging wharfage at the enhanced rate. The petition was dismissed by Chaturvedi, J., on 24-8-1955. Aggrieved by his judgment the merchants instituted Special Appeal No. 356 of 1955, which was on 27-2-1958 dismissed by a Bench composed of Mootham, C. J. and R, Dayal J. On 25-9-1956, while the Special Appeal was still pending, one Puttu Lal, who professes to carry on business in oil-cakes in Kaimganj, filed the present petition praying for the same reliefs as the merchants in the earlier case, and I might state that his petition was calculated to get over what were thought to be defects in the merchant's unsuccessful petition.;