Judgment

S. R. Das, CJI.: This appeal filed with a certificate of fitness under Art. 132 (1) of the Constitution of India is against the judgment and order pronounced on October 24, 1952, by a Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature for Travancore Cochin in writ petition No. 32 of 1952, presented on March 26, 1952, before the said High Court by the present respondent.

2. The facts are shortly as follows: Since 1945 the respondent had been a wholesale dealer in foreign liquor in Ernakulam in the erstwhile State of Cochin. In that State there was an Act called the Cochin Abkari Act (Act 1 of 1077 M. E.) For the neighbouring State of Travancore there was the Travancore Abkari Act (Act IV of 1073 M. E.). The Travancore State framed rules under its Abkari Act which were duly published in the Official Gazette under S. 65 of the Travancore Act. The Travancore practice was to fix a quota for each licensee for the sale of different varieties of foreign liquor on which no commission was charged and to charge each licensee 20 per cent. commission in respect of sales in excess of the quota. No rules had been framed by the Cochin State under its Abkari Act until 2-6-1949, when a set of ru