KANWAR SINGH Vs. DELHI ADMINISTRATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE following judgment of the court was delivered by :

(2.) THIS is an appeal by special leave from the summary dismissal of the appellants' application for revision by the High court of Punjab.

(3.) BEFORE us Mr. Kohli who appears for the appellants has raised two points. The first point is that the raiding party had no authority to seize and impound the cattle and the second point is that the appellants who were the owners of the cattle had a right of private defence of their property, that what they did was in exercise of that right and that, therefore, their conviction under s. 332 was bad in law. The power to impound stray cattle is contained in s. 418(1) of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957 (66 of 1957), which runs thus : `If any horses, cattle or other quadruped animals or birds are kept on any premises in contravention of the provisions of section 417, or are found abandoned and roaming or tethered on any street or public place or on any land belonging to the Corporation, the Commissioner or any officer empowered by him may seize them and may cause them to be impounded or removed to such place as may be appointed by the government or the Corporation for the purpose and the cost of seizure of these animals or birds and Of impounding...... or removing them and of feeding and watering them shall be recoverable by sale or by auction Of those animals or birds;` The proviso which would be relevant in connection with another point runs thus: `Provided that any one claiming such animal or bird may, within seven days of the seizure, get them released on his paying all expenses incurred by the Commissioner in seizing, impounding or removing and in feeding and watering such animal or bird, and on his producing a licence for keeping these animals and birds issued under the provisions of section 417.` The power under this section can be delegated by the Commissioner. But according to Mr. Kohli delegation of this power has not been established in this case. It is true that the Order of the Commissioner delegating the power under s. 418(1) is not on the record of the case. It has, however, been placed before us along with the statement of the case. That order runs thus: `In exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 491 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, 1 hereby direct that the power conferred on me under section 418(1) of the said Act shall subject to my supervision, control and revision be exercised also by the Municipal employees mentioned in column 3 of the schedule given below to the extent stated in column 4 of the schedule. Sd. P. R. NAYAK, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, SCHEDULE <FRM>JUDGEMENT_871_AIR(SC)_1965Html1.htm</FRM> Mr. Kohli, however, said that the delegation of power is ineffective because, according to him, it purports to make a general delegation of power and does not specify the names of persons to whom the power is delegated. A perusal of the schedule below the order shows that the power of seizure of certain animals is specifically delegated and it is clearly indicated in column 4 thereof as follows: `In respect of stray cattle only` In the third column the designation of the municipal employees to whom the power is delegated has also been given. The section does not require the names of the particular officers in whose favour the delegation is made to be mentioned. What it requires is to specify the officers to whom the power is delegated. This only means that the designation of the officers to whom the power has been delegated need only to be mentioned. That has been done. We may add that s. 491 of the Delhi Corporation Act permits delegation to any municipal officer or employee and, therefore, specific individual authorisation is not necessary.