TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1954 (2) TMI 15
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.... forms a separate caste in itself The contention was that when Gangaram Thaware joined the Panth he ceased to be a member of the Mahar caste' The objection succeeded and his nomination was rejected. The nomination of another Scheduled Caste candidate was also rejected and five others were withdrawn before the election, among them was the present petitioner. That left six candidates of whom three were eligible for the reserved seat. The two who were elected were Tularam Sakhare, for the Scheduled Caste seat, and chaturbhuj, Jasani, nor the general seat. Jasani's election was challenged on the ground that he was subject to the disqualifications set out in section 7 (d) of the Representation of the People Act (Act XLIII of 1951) as he was interested in a contract for the supply of goods to the Central Government. The Election Tribunal held that the rejection of Gangaram Thaware's nomination was improper as he continued to be a member of the Mahar caste despite his conversion to the tenets of the Mahanubhava. Panth. It also held that Chaturbhuj Jasani had a contract with the Central Government, so he was disqualified. Accordingly it set aside the whole election. We will ....
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....is contract would be governed by the terms set out in the letters but until an order was placed and accepted there was no contract. Also, each separate order and acceptance constituted a different and distinct contract: see Rose and Frank Co. v. J. R. Crompton & Bros. Ltd [1925] A.C. 445The crucial dates with which we are concerned are 15th November, 1951, the last date for putting in the nominations, and 14th February, 1952, the date on which the results were declared. The section runs-- "A person shall be disqualified for being chosen as...... The words which follow, "and for being", need not be considered as it is enough for our purposes to use only the former. Now the words of the section are "shall be disqualified for being chosen." The choice is made by a series of steps starting with the nomination and ending with the announcement of the election. It follows that if a disqualification attaches to a candidate at any one of these stages he cannot be chosen. The disqualification alleged in this case is that Chaturbhuj Jasani had an interest in a contract, or a series of contracts, for the supply of goods to the Central Government. He had this interest....
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....ere, not supplied before 15th November, 1951, and before 14th February, 1952. It was said on behalf of 'the appellant that these are the only dates which are crucial, so if Moolji Sicka.& Company hid. fully executed their part of the contracts before the two crucial dates the disqualification would not apply. That raises these questions: (1) Does a person who has fully executed his part of a contract continue to have an interest in it till the goods are paid for ?; and (2) were these contracts fully executed so far as Moolji Sicka & Company's part was concerned? The parties are not agreed about this, so it will now be necessary to examine their letters in detail to determine the terms of the various contracts. The correspondence discloses that the Canteen Stores and Moolji Sicka & Company dealt with each other from time to time under various arrangements which they called " systems. The earliest letter we have about the transactions between these parties is one dated 30th March, 1951. It shows that the "system" which they called the " Direct Supply System " was in use at that time. The details of the " system " are set out in an order date....
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....to supply bidis for the Bombay, Calcutta and Delhi Depots of the Canteen Stores under a new system which they called the " Consignment System ". Under this the Canteen Stores were to pay as they sold. But the new system was intended only for the Bombay, Calcutta and Delhi Depots of the Canteen Stores. The letter goes on to say that for the Pathankot and Srinagar Depots the supplies would have to be made on the " Outright Purchase Basis ". These proposals were embodied under the heading " Future Business RelationsThen there was a provision for what was called theTransition Period ". That said that Untilstocks could be placed in our depots, it was agreed that you would supply your bidis direct against our orders and on such supplies you would allow us rebate as at present. These proposals were sent to Moolji Sicka & Company for confirmation. It will be seen that the' letter makes four proposals: (1)That so far as Moolji Sicka & Company were concerned, " The Direct Supply System " should be terminated at once though, so far as other manufacturers were concerned, it should continue in force for some time longer; (2)That in its place the Ca....
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.... stocks with which Moolji Sicka & Company were to supply them for stocking their depots at Calcutta, Bombay and Delhi. Moolji Sicka & Company were not satisfied with this and said that the Canteen Stores must either return or pay for all stocks supplied, within three months from the date of supply. The Canteen Stores replied on 19th July, 1951, as follows: (1) They accepted Moolji Sicka & Company's suggestion that when the Direct Supply System was abolished the abolition would apply to all suppliers of bidis. (2) As regards the " Consignment Account System they did not turn down the proposals but observed that they were thinking of doing away with that too in favour of the " Outright Purchase System" and warned Moolji Sicka & Company that in view of that it might not be necessary to place any of Moolji Sicka & Company's stocks in their depots. (3) They wanted a six months' guarantee period in place of three months. The letter concludes- "Although under the system of provisioning,adopted by us, and as explained to you during our discussions, it may not be that we shall at any time have any stocks surplus to our requirements or stocks which have....
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....direct. The Canteen Stores were naturally reluctant to keep large stocks on hand because bidis 'deteriorate and become unsaleable in course of time. Therefore they proposed the " pay as we sell " system, that is, they would keep stocks of bidis and pay for whatever they sold. But the problem of unsold stocks deteriorating still remained. Who was to be responsible? The obvious answer was that the manufacturers should take back the unsold stocks before they were too far gone and in their place send fresh consignments for sale on the " pay as we sell " basis. We say "obvious" because the manufacturers could use the stale tobacco by re-curing and blending it, or could use it for other purposes provided it was not too far gone. The proposal therefore was that the, Canteen Stores were to keep stocks of Moolji Sicka & Company's bidis in their depots and canteens, pay for what they sold and return all unsold stocks within six months. Moolji Sicka & Company were then to replace them with fresh stocks which would be paid for when sold. This was agreed to in the main but the point at which they were at issue was the six months. Mooli Sicka & -Company prop....
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.... till such time as the depots were stocked. The third system of " Outright Purchase " was limited for the time being to the Pathankot and Srinagar depots. Both the "Direct Supply" and the "Consignment" systems were abolished together on list November, 1951 (see the Canteen Stores' letter dated 24th November, 1951). But the obligation to take back unsold stocks within the six months' period continued to attach to all contracts for consignment to the Calcutta, Bombay and Delhi depots made between 9th August, 1951, and 31st October, 1951. The tabular statement shows that the following contracts for consignment to one or other of these three depots were made during that period. The date of the invoice is the date of the execution of the order and thus of the acceptance of the proposal contained in the order. Date of Invoice& despatch Depot Price of goodsd Supplied date payment 1-10-1951 Bombay Rs. 5,056-2-0 15-11-1951 13-10-1951 do. 13,536-4,-6 do 18-10-1951 Delhi 1,684-13-9 19-12-1951 19-10-1951 Calcutta 3,373- 9-3 do 18-10-1951 Bombay 4,793-4-9 24-12-1951 The value of these orders comes to ₹ 28,444-2-3. The oblig....
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....ngth. of certain observations in some English cases, that the moment a contract is fully executed on one side and all that remains is to receive payment from the other, then the contract terminates and a new relationship of debtor and creditor takes its place. With the utmost respect we are unable to agree. There is always a possibility of the liability being disputed before actual payment is made and the vendor may have to bring an action to establish his claim to payment. The existence of the debt depends on the contract and cannot be established without showing that payment was a term of the contract. It is true the contractor might abandon the contract and sue on quantum meruit but if the other side contested and relied on the terms of the contract, the decision would have to rest on that basis. In any case, as we are not bound by the dicta and authority of those cases, even assuming they go that far, we prefer to hold that a contract continues in being till it is fully discharged by both sides: see the observations of Gibson J. in O'Carroll v. Hasting8(1905) 2 I.R. 590 at 608To use the language of O'Brien L.C.J. in that case at page 599, these contracts have not been &....
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....ent of India Acts of 1919 and 1935. Certain sections in these Acts were said to be similar to article 299. We do not think that they are, but in any case the rulings ,under section 30 (2) of the Government of India Act, 1915, as amended by the Government of India Act of 1919 disclose a difference of opinion. Thus, Krihsnaji Nilkant v. Secrtary of State A.I.R. 1937 Bom. 449,451ruled that contracts with the Secretary of State must be by a deed executed on behalf of the Secretary of State for India and in his name. They cannot be made by correspondence or orally. Secretary of State v. Bhagwandas A.I.R. 1938 Bom. 168.and Devi Prasad Sri Krihhna Prasad Ltd. v. Secretary of State 21 T.L.R. 319held they could be made by correspondence. Secretary of State V. O.T. Sarin & Company,. A.I.R. 1941 All. 377took an intermediate vie,* and held that though contracts in the prescribed form could not be enforced by either side. a claim for compensation under section 70 of the Indian Contract Act would lie. Province of Bengal v. S. L. Puri 51 C.W.N. 753.took a strict view and held that even letters headed "Government of India" did not comply with, the rule in section 175 (3) of the Governmen....
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.... for one reason or other not in proper form. It is only right that an innocent contracting party should not suffer because of this and if there is no other defect or objection we have no doubt Government will always accept the responsibility. If not, its interests are safeguarded as we think the Constitution intended that they should be. In the present case, there can be no doubt that the Chairman of the Board of Administration acted on behalf of the Union Government and his authority to contract in that capacity was not questioned. There can equally be no doubt that both sides acted in the belief and on the assumption, which was also the fact, that the goods were intended for Government purposes, namely, amenities for the troops. The only flaw is that the contracts were not in proper form and so, because of this purely technical defect, the principal could not have been sued. But that is just the kind of case that section 230(3) of the Indian Contract Act is designed to meet. It would, in our opinion, be disastrous,to hold that the hundreds of Government officers who have daily to enter into a variety of contracts, often of a petty nature, and sometimes in an emergency, cannot co....
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....d religion. Russell in Volume IV of his Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces says that the Manbhaos (Mahanubhau) is a religious sect,or order which has " now" (1911) become a caste. The Central Provinces Ethnographic Survey, Volume IX, says the same thing at page 107 and at page 110 and adds that members of the sect often act as priests or gurus to the Mahars. As against this, the Election Tribunal has quoted a number of opinions which tend the other way. Thus, V. B. Kolte says at page 247 of his Shri Chandradhar Charitra that no serious attempt has been made by them to abolish caste, and Ketkar says at page 76, Volume XVIII of the 1926 edition of his Maharashtriya Dhnyankosh that there are two divisions among the Mahanubhavas, one of Sanyasig who renounce the world and the other a secular one. The latter observe the caste system and follow the rituals of their own caste and carry on social contacts with their caste people and marry among them. Similar views are expressed by Bal Krishna Mohanubhav Shastri. But we are not really concerned 'with their theology. What we have to determine are the social and political consequences of such conversions and that, we fe....
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....ay:- " He " (the convert) " may renounce the old law by which he was bound, as he has renounced his old religion, or, if -he thinks fit, he may abide by the old law, notwithstanding he has renounced the old religion. " The only modification here is that it is not only his choice which must be taken into account but also the views of the body whose religious tenets he has (1) 9 M.I.A. 199 at 242, 243, and 244. renounced, because here the right we are considering is the right of the old body, the right conferred on it as a special privilege to send a member of its own fold to Parliament. But with that modification the observations which follow. apply in their broad outline. "The profession of Christianity releases the convert from the trammels of the Hindu law, but it does not of necessity involve any change of the rights or relations of the' convert in matters with which Christianity has no concern, such as his rights and interests in, and his powers over, property. The convert, though not bound as to such matters, either by the Hindu law or by any other positive law, may by his course of conduct after his conversion have shown by what law he intende....
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.... and so ought to know, but he affects an otherworldly indifference-to mundane affairs and says that as he does not lead a worldly life he does not know whether converts retain their caste distinctions and whether there are inter-dinings and inter-marriages in the Mahanubhava fold itself among those who belonged to different castes before conversion. Shankar (R. W. 2) says that a convert loses his caste on conversion but gives no instance of ostracism from the old fold. In any case, his evidence is confined to the sanyasi order among the Mahanubhavas because he says that every person who becomes a convert to this sect must renounce the world and cannot marry. When pinned down in cross-exami- nation he had to admit that he did know two or three Mahanubhavas who were leading a worldly life but he meets that by saying that they are not real Mahanubhavas. Chudaman (R. W. 3) evades the issue in the same way. He is a Mahanubhava Pujari and so is another person who ought to have special knowledge. Despite that he says he cannot give a single instance of a person belonging to one caste, initiated into the Mahanubhava sect, marrying a person of another caste initiated into the same Panth. W....