- (1.) The present is an appeal under clause X of the Letters Patent, directed against the judgment of a learned Single Judge of this Court, rendered in Civil Writ Petition No. 3032 of 1973. The circumstances under which the Writ Petition was moved, may be recapitulated with brevity. As said by Fenelon, "The fewer the words, the better the prayer." The respondent, the British India Corporation Limited, is functioning with its Head Office at Kanpur, and is running two Woollen Mills, one at Dhariwal under the name and style of New Egerton Woollen Mills (hereinafter spoken as Dhariwal Mill) and another at Kanpur, known as Lal-Imli Cawnpore Woollen Mills. It is the case of the respondent itself that in consequence of purchases of raw material made by the Head Office at Kanpur, such raw material is sent from various centres in India, as well as from abroad, to both the Mills in accordance with their requirements. It is, however, alleged that no raw material, used in the Dhariwal Mill is purchased locally or within the area of the Market Committee Dhariwal, excepting that during the year 1969 and 1970, two contracts for the purchase of raw wool of the value of Rs. 6,000/- and Rs. 5,000/- respectively were made within the area of the said Market Committee. The case of the respondent, therefore, is that no purchase or sale of the raw material received by the Dhariwal Mill takes place within the area of the Market Committee. It was averred in the Writ Petition that in spite of the above facts, the appellant, Market Committee, made a demand from the respondent to pay market fee on all raw wool purchased by it from March 7, 1962 to June 29, 1968 as per letter dated June 21, 1968 (Copy annexure 'A'). It was mentioned in this letter that non-payment of the market fee would entail an assessment of the fee and recovery thereof along with penalty, as arrears of land revenue.
(2.) A series of letters by way of correspondence were exchanged between the parties, the Committee pressing for its demand and the respondent denying its liability. Ultimately, as per letter dated March 15, 1971 (Copy annexure 'N'), the appellant Committee made an assessment of the market fee due from the respondent and demanded from it a sum of Rs. 3,67,200/-, being Rs. 2,44,800/- as the fee payable for the period commencing May 26, 1961 to December 31, 1970, and Rs. 1,22,400/- as penalty.
(3.) It appears that the appellant took steps under Section 41(2) of the Punjab Agricultural Produce Markets Act, 1961 (to be referred hereinafter as the Act) for the recovery of the above mentioned amount from the respondent as arrears of land revenue. This action propelled the respondent to approach this Court by means of a Writ Petition Civil Writ Petition No. 4247 of 1971, which came up for hearing before R.S. Sarkaria, J., (then an Hon'ble Judge of the Court). The Writ Petition culminated in the order of the learned Judge dated November 15, 1972, recording that the appellant Committee had agreed to withdraw the impugned assessment and to make a fresh assessment according to the rules. In view of this undertaking, the Writ Petition was dismissed as infructuous.;