A N SHERVANI Vs. LT GOVERNOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These Writ Petitions challenge the validity of the Regulations issued by the Commissioner of Police, Delhi, under Delhi Police Act to regulate Guest Houses through licensing. The petitioners are mostly owners of the Guest Houses in Delhi and they have also challenged the licensing policy of the Commissioner of Police as being arbitrary and discriminatory.

(2.) The places of public accommodation and entertaiment have undergone a sea change in the last hundred years. The changes are dictated by the new set of economic relations, fast means of communication, and individual needs of better living amenities and at times the luxuries. On the one hand the laws and public regulations of such places were found necessary for the protection, safety and hygiene of the travellers/dwellers. On the other hand, it was also necessary to regulate the social and public aspect of these new institutions infringing public peace and order.

(3.) The first regulatory enactment so far as applicable to Delhi in this area is Sarais Act, 1867. Sarai as defined by the Act means any building used for the shelter and accommodation of travellers, and includes, a purao. Purao has been described as a halting place, a camp, encampment, a camping ground, an assembly, a stage (the standard Urdu-English Dictionary by Abdul Haq. 175). Under the Act only the registered Sarais were permitted to entertain travellers. The duties of the keepers of sarais includes maintaining the sarais clean with proper drains and by cleaning wells and tanks. The sarai owner was also under a duty to keep the gates and fencing in good Condition with watchman so as to protect the person and property of the travellers. In 1867 when the Sarais Act was passed the economy was mainly the rural and agricultural. The means of communications were horses and camels and bullock-carts. The travel was mainly restricted to traders and pilgrims who required night shelter only as journey could be done during day time. There was social and religious restrictions of eating food outside and. therefore, the travelling people used to carry their own food. The city of Delhi was still a small place mostly restricted to the walled city. Calcutta was the Capital city then and had, therefore, earliest police enactments regulating and controlling places of public entertainment. Calcutta Police Act was passed in 1866. The places of public entertainment under the Act included lodging houses, boarding houses, hotels, restaurants etc. The Act prescribed the penalty of imprisonment arid fine for running a place of public entertainment without licence or in violation of the terms of licence. We have recently Bombay Police Act, 1951, Karnataka Police Act, 1963, Hyderabad Police Act making elaborate provisions of control and regulations of places of public entertainment. Bombay Police Act was made applicable to Delhi by an ordinance under the Delhi Laws Act in 1978 and was then converted into an Act. The Delhi Police Act empowers the Commissioner of Police to issue Regulations for regulation and control of places of public entertainment similar to the Bombay Police Act. We have now in Delhi, as in all big cities in India, the restaurants, lodging houses, hotels including five star hotels and the hotels run by the Government. This growth of the places of public entertainment is the need of the society which passing through industrialisation urbanisation. fast means of communication like railways and aeroplanes, lesser taboos of eating outside food and a class of travellers such as business-men, executives and the higher governmental officials, not only expecting better living places in their travel but also expecting means of amusement and luxury. Simultaneously, of course, there are Sarais and Dharamshalas catering mostly to the needs of rural and economically humble sections of the society. With the increase in population more and more villages are being added to Delhi's urbanised areas. The population of Delhi is at the various stages of urbanisation and hence the need for continuation of the Sarais Act, although a more comprehensive legislation like Delhi Police Act (and Regulations) is now enacted. This socio-economic background has to be kept in mind while appreciating the arguments for the petitioners.