PAKKIRISWAMI PILLAI Vs. THE MUNICIPAL COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS revision petition is by accused 2 who has been found guilty under Section 270 of the District Municipalities Act and has been sentenced to a fine of Rs. 50 and in default to simple imprisonment for one week, by the learned Special First Class Magistrate, Tanjore, in O. C. No. 2 of 1956. The charge against the petitioner was that he along with accused 1, who is not before me, was running a lorry -stand In T. S. No. 2985/P of Ward 6 of Tanjore Municipality without a licence and had therefore committed an offence punishable under Section 270 of the District Municipalities Act.

(2.) THE owner of the land is accused 1 who has been acquitted on the ground that there was no evidence that he had used his land as a stand for parking lorries. It has not been proved that he had leased out this land to accused 2, the petitioner before me, for such a purpose. Nor has it been proved by any evidence that the petitioner had any control over the use of this land, either by way of a lease or by any permission or licence from its owner.

(3.) Parking of the lorries on the site must be directly attributable to the accused and his responsibility therefore should be established. In order to prove that the petitioner was really using the land in question not belonging to him as a stand for lorries, something newer must be established. He should either have control over the land or exercise authority over the land. He must be in a position to allow or disallow the parking of lorries on the land, or he must be making some benefit by allowing the lorries to be parked on the site in question. If lorry -drivers bring their lorries and park them on a vacant site near the office of the accused, unless it is proved that they do so on his permission only, it cannot be said that the accused is using the vacant site as a lorry stand.