Judgment

CHINNAPPA REDDY, J.:- The old question "what is compensation" is back again. Fortunately, Constitutional Amendments and Judicial precedents have narrowed the scope for controversy. The question has arisen this way:

2. The appellant (sic) (Petitioner) the Oriental Gas Company Ltd. was originally constituted in England by a deed of settlement in April 1853, as the Oriental Gas Company for the purpose of manufacture, supply, distribution and sale of fuel gas in Calcutta. It was later incorporated in accordance with the provisions of the English Joint Stock Companies Act, 1862. By a subsequent arrangement the control and management of the Company passed from British into Indian hands. Over the course of the years the Company acquired extensive properties and became the owner of large plants, machinery, buildings, lands, pipelines, stores etc. The total market value of the appellants (sic) (Petitioner?) industrial undertaking was estimated by the appellant (sic) (Petitioner?) as on 22nd March, 1962, at Rs. 7,00,00,000. In 1958, the Government of West Bengal, being of the view that the Company which enjoyed a monopoly in the supply of Gas in Calcutta was negligent in looking after