Carriage of Property
Lien for rates, terminals and other charges
55. (1) If a person fails to pay on demand made by or on behalf of the railway administration any rate, terminal or other charge due from him in respect of any animals or goods, the railway administration may detain the whole or any of the animals or goods or, if they have been removed from the railway, any other animals or goods of such person then being in or thereafter coming into its possession.
(2) When any animals or goods have been detained under sub-section (1), the railway administration may sell by public auction, in the case of perishable goods at once, and in the case of other goods or of animals on the expiration of at least fifteen days' notice of the intended auction, published in one or more of the local newspapers, or where there are no such newspapers, in such manner as the Government may prescribe, sufficient of such animals or goods to produce a sum equal to the charge, and all expenses of such detention, notice and sale, including, in the case of animals, the expenses of the feeding, watering and tending thereof.
(3) Out of the proceeds of the sale the railway administration may retain a sum equal to the charge and the expenses aforesaid, rendering the surplus, if any, of the proceeds, and such of the animals or goods (if any) as remain unsold, to the person entitled thereto.
(4) If a person on whom a demand for any rate, terminal or other charge due from him has been made fails to remove from the railway within a reasonable time any animals or goods which have been detained under sub-section (1) or any animals or goods which have remained unsold after a sale under sub-section (2), the railway administration may sell the whole of them and dispose of the proceeds of the sale as nearly as may be under the provisions of sub-section (3).
(5) Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing sub-sections, the railway administration may recover by suit any such rate, terminal or other charge as aforesaid or balance thereof.