MUNICIPAL COMM ITTEE AMRITSAR Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Cattle fairs are held for the last many decades in different parts of the territory of the State of Punjab, by local authorities and individual owners of land.The person or authority holding the cattle fair provides facilities to cattle owners for board and lodging and for stabling their cattle generally in consideration of charges including a percentage on the price realised by sale or purchase of cattle.

(2.) The Governor of Punjab with a view to control and regulate cattle fairs promulgated Ordinance No. 14 of 1967 on November 4, 1967, declaring a monopoly in the State of Punjab to hold cattle fairs and prohibiting all local authorities and individuals from holding cattle fairs "at any place in the State." This Ordinance was replaced by the Punjab Cattle Fairs (Regulation) Act 6 of 1968. By Section 3 of the Act it is provided:

(3.) Validity of the Punjab Cattle Fairs (Regulation) Act, 1967 was challenged in a group of petitions moved before the High Court of Punjab by persons interested in holding cattle fairs: Mohinder Singh Sawhney v. State of Punjab, AIR 1968 Punj 391. Before the High Court one of the contentions raised by the petitioners was that the provisions of the Act were "vague and ambiguous", and on that account the Act was ultra vires. The Court accepted that contention. The Court observed that there was a distinction between a "cattle market" and a "cattle fair" and since no definition of "cattle fair" was supplied by the Act it was left to the executive authorities to determine what a "cattle fair" was and on that account "the infirmity went to the root of the matter, and the Act was liable to be struck down in its entirety on the ground of vagueness, even if some of its provisions were unexceptionable in themselves".