A licence granted to a licensee who has executed work of a permanent nature and incurred expenses in the execution with the consent and approval of the licensor is irrevocable.

R.N. Das, Asit Banerjee, Urmila Datta Sen for the respondent.

Asok Kumar Ganguly, J.: The petitioner No.1 is a Public Limited Company having its registered office at 35, Hindusthan Road, Kolkata-700029 and the Cold Storage at Plot No. 22 at Sealdah, South Station area. The petitioner No.2 is the Director and Shareholder of the petitioner No. 1. The petitioner's case is that the petitioner-company was formed on the invitation of the Railway Authorities and the purpose of establishing the petitioner-company was to prevent decomposition of a good portion of the prescribed goods coming by rail such as, fresh meat, milk products, food and vegetables. So by a letter dated 3rd May, 1947 the then General Commercial Manager of Bengal-Assam Railways 1 granted a licence to the petitioner-company for constructing a Cold Storage. The petitioner's further case is after getting the approval of the Railway Authorities, a plan was prepared for construction of a permanent Cold Storage which was duly approved and sanctioned by the Railway Authority and in accordance with the said sanctioned plan, the petitioner-company in 1948 constructed permanent structure for a Cold Storage at its own costs. The petitioner's case is that the Cold Storage of the petitioner-company is unique and there is no other Cold Storage like the one of petitioner-company within the network of the Eastern Railway. The petitioner's further case is that as a result of the functioning of the said Cold Storage various commodities like fish, yeast, sweets, milk curd, honey and apple juice are not only stored but they are also distributed and sent to Railways from the said Cold Storage to various districts. According to the petitioner-company the said Cold Storage is functioning in public interest and caters to the needs of public at large. The petitioner's case is that it is not disputed that the petitioner-company has been duly paying all sums and the licence fees and other taxes as and when demanded by the Rail, way Authorities and initially the Railway Authorities gave to the Cold Storage licence for five years commencing from 1st August, 1947 and the same was renewed from time to time. Thereafter, on 27th August, 1976 the Divisional Subordinate Manager demanded from the petitioner-company enhanced fees in respect of the said Cold Storage with retrospective effect from 1963-64. As the petitioner-company refused to pay the said enhanced licence fees the General Manager Estern Railway by a letter dated 25th September, 1977 allegedly cancelled the licence granted to the petitioner-company on the purported ground for non-execution of further lease and non-payment of licence fees. Against such cancellation, the petitioner-company made a representation to the Railway Administration and thereafter a joint meeting was held on 10th October, 1981 between the representative of the General Manager and the petitioner company and a settlement was arrived at. Pursuant to the settlement, the General Manager, Eastern Railway demanded from the petitioner-company a certain amount of money by way of licence fees and the same was paid by the petitioner-company. Again on 22nd November, 1984 a notice was issued to the petitioner-company directing the petitioner to vacate the land on which the Cold Storage of the petitioner was constructed. The said notice was issued purportedly under the Public Premises [Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants] Act, 1971 [hereinafter referred to as the said Act] and by the said notice the respondent demanded from the petitioner a sum of Rs. l,29,404.50p. towards further licence fees. Again the petitioner made a representation to the Railway authorities against the said notice issued on 22nd November, 1984. But as nothing happened, the petitioner company filed a writ petition which was numbered Civil Order (C.O.) No. 3229(W) of 1985 for cancellation of the notice dated 22nd November, 1984 and an order was passed by Hon'ble Court on 27th November, 1985 to r