BALBIR SINGH Vs. EXECUTIVE ENGINEER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a special appeal from an order of a learned single Judge of this Court dismissing a writ petition.

(2.) The appellants are residents of village Kheri Sarai, pargana Bhooma Sambhal Hera, post office Miranpur, District Muzaffarnagar. On the morning of 2nd of May 1953 the pucca head of the Betawali minor (sub-canal) was found broken by the canal patrol on duty. The matter was investigated, and it was found that the villagers of Mauza Kheri Sarai and other villages had derived benefit by irrigating their fields from the water from the canal. It could not be discovered who had broken the canal head. The Assistant Engineer recommended a punitive rate for this unauthorised use amounting to Rs. 20,858/2/- for all the four villages. This was reduced by the Divisional Canal Officer to a single rate which came to Rs. 10,429/1/-. This amount was further reduced by the Additional District Magistrate in appeal. He held that the appellants used the water on the days on which they were entitled to use it and that they were not aware of the breach in the canal.

(3.) A writ petition was then filed in this Court by the appellants praying that the order imposing the charges upon them may be quashed. The grounds urged in support of their application were, firstly, that the finding of the Additional District Magistrate being that the appellants used the water of the canal only on the days on which they were permitted to use the water and that they were not aware of the breach in the canal, they were not liable to pay any punitive charges; secondly, that the order of the Executive Engineer was illegal inasmuch as he was not satisfied that an investigation was made by a canal officer; and thirdly, that the Executive Engineer did not consider judicially an application made by the appellants on the 9th January 1954. The learned single Judge rejected these contentions and dismissed the writ petition.