D.Basu, J. - (1.) In this Rule the petitioners pray that the order of requisition dated llth January, 1946, which is at Annexure "I" to the petition should be cancelled and the disputed property should be restored back to the possession of the petitioner No. 1 who is stated to have purchased the property from petitioner No. 2, who again had purchased it from the original owners of the land as mentioned in the order of requisition. The order of requisition was issued under Rule 75-A of the Defence of India Rules made under the Act of 1939 for the purpose of using it as a Government storage godown which was necessary "for maintaining supplies and services essential to the life of the community" and the order was made by the District Magistrate of Burdwan.
(2.) The petitioner's case is that the State of West Bengal has ceased to use the land for the original purpose for which it has been requisitioned and that instead of using it as "Government grain Storage Godown" it was being used at the date of the Rule for accommodating "Carpentry Works" belonging to the Industries Department, which was quite foreign to the purpose for which It had been requisitioned under Rule 75-A of the Defence of India Rules. Petitioners accordingly contend that the original purpose of requisition having ceased to exist the land should be released from requisition; they made a demand for so releasing the land which not having been heeded to they have come to Court.
(3.) The main plea in the counter-affidavit of the respondents is that though the disputed land was being used for the time being for the establishment of a model Carpentry Workshop by the Cottage and Small Scale Industries Department to which the land has been let out at a monthly rental basis by the Food and Supplies Department, the Government has not abandoned the idea of using the godown for storage of food-grains and also that the holding of a Carpentry Workshop is also a purpose essential to the life of the community so that it cannot be contended that the purpose for which the property had been requisitioned no longer exists. At the very outset it must be pointed out that though the supply of foodgrains is a supply which is essential to the community it cannot be contended that the erection of a workshop for training in carpentry is equally essential to the community, in the technical sense in which that expression has been used in the Defence of India Rules, even though it might be a 'public purpose. If that were so then every industry or handicraft may be said to be essential to the community for which the power of requisition could be used,;