VISHWANATH PANDEY Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The main question that is raised in this reference by the applicant Vishwanath Pande, who is an assistant station master, is whether the word "person" used in the beginning of Section 120 of the Railways Act includes a railway servant. The Magistrate answered the question in the affirmative and convicted the applicant Under Section 120, but the Additional Sessions Judge considering that It should I have been answered in the negative has referred the case to this Court for quashing the applicant's : conviction.

(2.) Section 120 reads as follows: 120. If a person in any railway carriage or upon any part of a railway (a) is in a state of intoxication, or (b) commits any nuisance or act of indecency, or uses obscene or abusive language, or (c) wilfully and without lawful excuse interferes with the comfort of any passenger or extinguishes any lamp, he shall be punished with fine which may extend to fifty rupees, in addition to the forfeiture of any fare which he may have paid and of any pass or ticket which he may have obtained or purchased, and may be removed from the railway by any railway servant. It may be conceded that the word "person" used in the beginning of the Section is general enough to cover any human being, whether he is a railway servant or not. It must also be conceded that the acts which are made punishable are acts which may be done by a railway servant as well as by a person other than a railway servant. Consequently there is nothing in the nature of the offence to suggest that it can be committed only by a person other than a railway servant. There are cogent reasons, however, for holding that the legislature did not intend a railway servant to be punished Under Section 120.

(3.) Firstly the Act itself makes a distinction between "offences by railway servants" and "other y offences" by including Sections 99 to 105 under the former heading and Sections 106 to 130 under the latter heading. The inclusion of Section 120 among "other offences" is not quite consistent with the offence made punishable thereunder being an offence liable to be committed by a railway servant.