Judgement

SARKAR, J.: The respondent is a company incorporated in 1912. The immediate object of the Company was to acquire from the People s Bank of India Ltd. the licence. it had obtained from the Government for the supply of electricity to Lahore city. The Company acquired that licence in 1913 and the necessary plants and machinery for the generation and supply of electricity. Between 1923 and 1939 it acquired licences for similar purposes in regard to various other places in different parts of India. All these licences were however either terminated or disposed of one by one and in 1942 the only licence which the Company possessed was that in respect of the city of Lahore. About the end of 1942 or beginning of 1943, the Government of the then Province of Punjab acquired the Company s undertaking in regard to the supply of electricity to the city of Lahore and on September 5, 1946, the Company delivered its aforesaid undertaking with all assets to the Government. It was agreed that the Company would pay to the Government half of the net profits of the Lahore electric supply undertaking arising between November 27, 1942 and September 5, 1946. On September 5, 1946, the Company recei