EXECUTIVE OFFICER CHALAKUDY PANCHAYAT Vs. V P DEVASSY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The learned trial magistrate found that the accused in this case had put up a stone and cement structure across, and obstructing, a drain forming part of a public road situate and vested ' in a Panchayat. If that be so, the accused was guilty of a breach of clause (a) of S.84 of the Kerala Panchayats Act, the construction not being permitted by the rules made under the Act. That section, so far as is material, says:

(2.) It is the first of the grounds stated by the learned District Magistrate that has been responsible for this case coming before us and we shall deal with it first. Sub-s.(3) of S.1 of the Act provides that the Act "shall come into force on such date as the Government may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint". Also that "different dates may be appointed for different areas and for different provisions" of the Act. It is because the notification bringing the relevant provisions of the Act into force had not been tendered in evidence and duly proved at the trial that the learned District Magistrate held that the prosecution must fail.

(3.) The offence is alleged to have been committed on 3-5-1969. There is, in fact, a notification by the State Government dated the 1st December 1961 and published in the Kerala Gazette of the 12th December 1961 appointing the first day of January 1962 as the date on which S.84 and 132 and Schedule.3 among other provisions of the Act shall come into force. That notification is extracted in the publication of the Act commonly used in the courts, and a copy of the notification has been produced before us. The short question is whether a Court which under clause (1) of S.57 of the Indian Evidence Act is bound to take judicial notice of all laws in force in the territory of India should insist on a notification like the present bringing a law into force being produced and proved in the ordinary course, or should itself find out whether, or not the law has been brought into force by resort to the appropriate books or documents of reference.