RAJKOT NAGARPALIKA Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Rajkot Nagarpalika i. e. the Municipality being aggrieved by the order passed in Criminal Appeal No. 22 of 1976 by the learned Sessions Judge Rajkot setting aside the order of Conviction and sentence passed against respondents No. 2 and 3 that is the original accused for the offence punishable under sec 125 or the Gujarat Municipalities Act. 1963 and Bye Law 18 of the Rajkot Borough Municipality Bye laws has preferred this appeal. ... ... ... ... ...

(2.) What is material and relevant for the purpose of bringing home the charge under sec. 125 of the Act as also the relevant part of Bye law 18 of the Octroi Bye laws for which the accused were tried is to show that the goods brought within the municipal limits were liable to payment of octroi duty and that the accused with the intention of defrauding the Municipality caused or abated the introduction of or attempted to introduce within the octroi limits of the Municipality such goods upon which payment if octroi were due on such introduction which payment had either been made nor tendered It may be noted here that we are not concerned in the instant case which the latter part of sec. 125 read with sec. 124 of the Act as also the earlier part of Bye Law 18 of the Octroi Bye Laws. Intention therefore of defrauding the Municipality is the main ingredient and the prosecution has to establish it. In the instant case from the evidence on record it is manifest that the said engine was brutality within the municipal limits on the night of 18th September 1972 without payment of the octroi at Octroi Naka and that this article was found lying in the showroom of the accused company on the next day when the Octroi Inspector visited the premises. As the evidence shows the very first statement which was made by the accused when the article was found lying at the premises of the accused company was that the said article was brought by the customer himself from Ahmedabad and placed in the showroom of the accused company. But in further correspondence with Ashvin Automobiles Ahmedabad it emerged that the engine had been lying unsold for and on behalf of the accused company with Ashwin Automobiles and that they had sent it back to the Company through the driver of the Company.

(3.) A shift thereafter seen in the defence case at the trial. The defence of the accused was that the engine was given back by Ashvin Automobiles to the accused companys driver without their consent and behind their back and that the driver had brought the said engine and placed it in the showroom without giving any information to the accusedcompany in this behalf. The conduct of the accused as it emerges from the evidence on record leaves no doubt in our mind that the engine was brought within the municipal limits by the accused without drawing the attention of the authorities concerned at the Octroi Naka and without payment of octroi duties with the intention of defrauding the municipality.