Khanwilkar, C.J. -- 1. The petitioner company is engaged in the business of limestone, in Katni District of State of Madhya Pradesh.The petitioner is required to transport limestone through Railways to Bokaro. The loading of limestone is done at the Railway Station Nanhwara, District Katni. The petitioner booked two racks of 58 wagons each for transporting limestone. The first rack containing 58 open wagons was loaded on 28.6.2006 and the second of the same capacity was loaded on 30.6.2006 at Nanhwara Railway Station. The loading was done under the supervision of a private company, which has been approved for that purpose by the Government known as “Superintendence Company of India (Private) Limited” (hereinafter referred to as SCIL, for the sake of brevity). There is no weighing facility of wagons at Nanhwara Railway Station. The said SCIL issued certificate in favour of the petitioner for having loaded the wagons. According to the petitioner, loading was done strictly as per the Rules and the requirement specified in that behalf by the Railways. The Railways also issued receipts, which mention that the wagons are not weighed at the forwarding station, hence, weighment may be done at en route or destination to detect overloading, if any, and levy the punitive charges before delivery.

2. According to the petitioner, as no weighing facility was available at Nanhwara Railway Station or the nearest Railway Station at Jhukehi en route Bokaro, could have been forwarded to Maiher and Satna, but, instead the racks were taken to New Katni Junction (NJK), which is in the opposite direction to Bokaro. The distance from Nanhwara to Jhukehi is about 20 km. and from Jhukehi to NKJ, Katni is about another 20 km. Further, between 30.6.2006 and 1.7.2006 due to heavy rains the limestone, which was being carried in open boxes was bound to be filled with water. For the same reason, the weighbridge at Katni could not have depicted the correct weight of limestone. The petitioner is relying on the certificate Annexure P-4 issued on 7.7.2006 that on the days of weighment of wagons at Katni it was raining heavily.

3. According to the petitioner, before the weighment of wagons was done at Katni, no prior notice was given to the petitioner and the entire exercise was carried out behind the back of the petitioner. During the said weighment at Katni, the first rack of limestone loaded by the petitioner is said to have found overloaded to the extent of 331.90 tons of limestone, as is noticed from the memo Annexure P-5 dated 3.7.2006 issued by the Divisional Railway Manager. On that basis,the Railways demanded punitive charges of Rs.10,50,260/- from the petitioner and detention charges Rs.52,200/- i.e. total Rs.11,02,460/-, vide Annexure P-6. A demand notice was also issued by the Superintendent in that behalf Annexure P-7 dated 13.7.2006. In respect of the second rack of limestone loaded by the petitioner on 30.6.2006, it was found by the Authorities that at Katni 29 boxes, 59.74 tons of limestone was overloaded. As a result, demand notice Annexure P-8 dated 3.10.2006 was issued to the petitioner demanding Rs.1,73,790/- as punitive charges and Rs.13,050/-as detention charges i.e. total Rs.1,86,840/-. However, no details or chart of overloading was supplied to the petitioner in respect of this demand notice.

4. The petitioner objected to the demand notices and denied its liability to pay any punitive or detention charges. The petitioner relied on the certificate issued by Weighbridge Expert Annexure P-9 dated 10.4.2005, indicating that if water is accumulated, the Weighbridge may not give correct weight. Inspite of objection, the Railway authorities insisted for payment of the charges as demanded; and because of the arm twisting method adopted by the Railways, the petitioner was forced to deposit Rs.2,44,046/- as punitive charges on 16.2.2007 and thereafter on 27.2.2007 further amount of Rs. Four lacs. The petitioner asserts that the Railways