- (1.) By consent of the parties, the appeal and the application are treated as on day's list and are disposed of in terms of this order. There shall be an order in terms of prayer (a) of the petition. Service of notice of appeal is waived.
(2.) This appeal is directed against an order dated 9th April 2019 by which the application filed by the Board of Trustees for the Port of Mumbai for payment of their statutory dues under the Major Port Trust Act, 1963 was disallowed and the suit was decreed substantially. Excepting for the overdue compensation and cheque bouncing charges, the plaintiffs obtained the entire relief in the suit. The Learned Single Judge has denied the claim of the appellant on the ground that the Commissioner did not verify the correctness or otherwise of the documents filed before him.
(3.) During the pendency of the admiralty suit, the appellant filed an application for intervention and payment of its dues out of the sale proceeds of the vessels in question. On 16th September 2016, Mr. S. P. Mazumdar, Senior Advocate of the Bar Library Club, was appointed as Commissioner to examine the bills of Mumbai Port Trust and file a report in a sealed envelope on or before 25th November 2016. It appears that several meetings were held by the Commissioner in which Mr. Somnath Bose representing the appellant produced several bills including substituted and/or revised bills along with the Scale of Rates for verification. The purpose of appointment of the Commissioner was to ascertain whether the bills raised were in accordance with the provisions of the Major Port Trust Act and the Scale of Rates revised by the Mumbai Port Trust from time to time. Before the Commissioner, it was not disputed that the bills raised by the Mumbai Port Trust towards its claim for compensation are in accordance with the Scale of Rates.;