Judgment

A. D. KOSHAL, J.:- By this judgment we shall dispose of Civil Appeals Nos. 1665 and 1666 of 1970, in which common questions of law have arisen for determination by this Court.

2. The facts leading to the two appeals are undisputed and may be briefly stated thus. Licences to run liquor vends in various parts of Punjab during the financial year 1965-66 were sold by public auction shortly before the 1st April, 1965. Auctions were held at numerous places subject to identical conditions which were supplied to the bidders in writing. Condition No, 8 which is material for our purposes is reproduced below :

"That the licencee shall lift each month the proportionate quota for the month fixed for his vend(s) or deposit still-head duty realisable thereon. In the event of any deficiency in the amount of still-head duty realisable from the lifting of the full proportionate quota due to the short lifting of the quota by the licencee or non-deposit of the amount of the still-head duty, the said deficiency may be realised from the amount of security deposited by him at the time of grant of licence. The resulting deficiency in the amount of security shall be made good by the licencee within 7