W.P. 1547 of 2010. Case: Mineral Overseas Pvt. Ltd. and Ors. Vs Chief Commercial Manager, S.E. Railway and Ors.. High Court of Calcutta (India)
| Case Number | W.P. 1547 of 2010 |
| Counsel | For Appellant: Ajay Krishna Chatterjee, D.N. Sharma, K. Chowdhury and A. Basu, Advs. and For Respondents: Swapan Banerjee and Rajendra Chaturvedi, Advs. |
| Judges | Subrata Talukdar, J. |
| Issue | Civil Procedure Code |
| Judgement Date | January 31, 2017 |
| Court | High Court of Calcutta (India) |
Judgment:
Subrata Talukdar, J.
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In this writ application the writ petitioner No. 1/company represented by one of its Directors, the writ petitioner No. 2, challenges the demand raised by the Railways on account of stacking charges at Barsuan railway siding of the respondents-South Eastern Railway (for short SER).
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Mr. Ajay Krishna Chatterjee, Ld. Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioners submits that the petitioner No. 1/company carries on business as traders and exporters of iron ore which is transported by road and the Railways. For the purpose of transporting the ore by Railways, indents are placed by the petitioner No. 1/company at various stations of the Railways, including SER, for the purpose of obtaining railway rakes. During the financial year 2006-07 two indents were placed at Barsuan railway siding.
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However, since the SER failed to allot rakes in favour of the petitioner No. 1/company, the indents dated 27th October, 2006 were ultimately cancelled on 25th December, 2006. Mr. Chatterjee submits that since no rakes were allotted by SER the question of stacking any iron ore at Barsuan railway siding does not arise at all.
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Therefore, the petitioners were utterly surprised to receive a stacking charge of Rs. 7,20,15,620/- dated 3rd February, 2007 from SER on the basis of a purported measurement of iron ore taken by representatives of SER at Barsuan railway siding on 24th November, 2006. The stacking charges pertained to the period up to 12th December, 2006, i.e. corresponding to the cancellation of the indents.
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Since the SER failed to take steps to withdraw stacking charges inspite of repeated representations on behalf of the petitioner No. 1/company, this writ petition has been filed praying, inter alia, for an order to set aside the demand.
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Mr. Chatterjee points out that the impugned demand notices raised by SER suffer from several fallacies.
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The question of stacking any iron ore at Barsuan railway siding does not arise at all since, no steps were taken by the petitioner No. 1/company on the basis of the indents dated 27th October, 2006.
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Since no rakes were allotted in favour of the petitioners the question of bringing iron ore for the purpose of stacking and loading did not arise at all. Although, the above noted facts were brought to the notice of the concerned railway authorities time and again by the petitioner, the stacking charges were never withdrawn.
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The SER failed to take notice of the copy of a certificate issued by the competent mining authority namely, the Deputy Director of Mines, Koira, Sundargarh, Odhisa dated 14th November, 2008 which, inter alia, states that no quantity of iron ore or any other materials were moved...
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