J.P.MITTER,J. - (1.) THIS is an application for a writ of Mandamus to compel the respondent H. M. Again as General Manager of the East Indian Railway to issue to the applicants a license or licenses for the period of 1 -6 -1950 to 31 -3 -1951 for sale, throughout the railway system, of ice, mineral waters ft cordials, and to direct the Divisional Superintendents of the Railway to permit the applicants to use the premises heretofore used by them as depots b stalls for the sale of their products.
(2.) THE applicants are manufacturers and caterers of ice and mineral waters. For 27 years or so they have worked as Railway contractors for catering ice, aerated waters and cordials to 'bonfire' passengers, Railway servants, Railway Institutes and hospitals and to refreshment room contractors over the entire system of the said Railway. The respondent was lately the Chief Commercial Manager, and is now the General Manager, of the East Indian Railway. The Head Office of the said Railway is at No. 105, Netaji Subhas Road, Calcutta. The applicant's claim to relief is founded upon an allegation that the East Indian Railway Administration has wrongfully refused to renew their catering contract for a fresh term in spite of a subsisting agreement for such renewal. They say that although during the last 27 years formal contracts embodying the terms and conditions of their services as caterers were periodically entered into by It between the parties, yet they often in fact rendered such services from time to time even without such formal contracts and that such services were accepted by the Railway Authorities as in continuation and or renewal of the contract last expiring. It is said that in the course of such services it became necessary for them to expand their factory at Howdah by importing expensive and up -to -date machineries in order to meet the growing requirements of the said Railway Administration. It is the applicants' case that in or about 1928 they asked that subject to their services being satisfactory, the periodical catering contracts should thenceforward stand on a permanent basis with regard to renewals thereof, so that they could continue and improve their services by malting further investments and thus pursue a policy of' expansion of their factory to meet the growing de -mands of the said Administration. This proposal, according to them, was accepted by the then Chief Operating Superintendent of the Railway who assured the applicants that no other contract would be employed by the Administration so long as the applicants' services were satisfactory and that the periodical contracts would be renewed by the Administration from time to time as a matter of course.
(3.) IT is said that on the applicants insisting upon the said agreement or arrangement being incorporated into the then next contract, the said Administration, in order to remove the feeling of insecurity on the part of the applicants, convened a meeting of the various Divislpnal Superintendents'of the said Administration. The said meeting was presided over by said Chief Operating Superintendent, and a copy of the minutes of the said meeting dated 15 -9 -1928, was forwarded to the applicants. The said minutes ran as follows: 'It was agreed that a long -term contract should not be given to Messrs. Carlsbad Mineral Water Manufacturing Co. & it was considered that the assurance they have already received that so long as their work is satisfactory the contract will remain with them is sufficient guarantee to warrant this Company proceeding with any policy of expansion they may have in view.' It is said that in reliance upon the said agreement the applicants from time to time invested large sums of money amounting to several lakhs, of rupees in enlarging their factory & equipping it with modern machineries of foreign manufacture. They claim that their services to the Administration have all along been satisfactory & that they have sold their products at the same rates as were fixed in 1923. They say further that since 1923 they have been in possession of a number of depots & stalls at different stations over the entire system of the said Railway & that they have paid rents in advance from year to year at rates fixed by the said Administration. The last of the catering contracts under which they have worked was executed on 3. -1 -1947, clause 3 whereof provided as follows: 'This contract comes into force from 1 -1 -1947 for a period of 3 years, provided always that it would be lawful for this contract to be terminated by either party giving three calendar months' notice in writing to the other on the expiry of which the licensee shall peacefully vacate the premises allotted to him.';