ABID ALI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application of revision filed by one Abid Ali, who is a Kirana merchant and whose shop is situate in Rakabganj, police station Chowk, Lucknow. The applicant has been convicted Under Sec. 27 of the UP Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1947, as he committed a breach of Sec. 10 of the said Act. The applicant has been sentenced to a fine of Rs. 30. The charge against him was that he opened his shop on Thursday 9-2-1956, which was declared a 'close day' for the locality by the District Magistrate u/Rr. 5 and 6 which supplement the provisions of this Act.

(2.) The facts of the case are not in dispute. The applicant admits that his shop was open on Thursday 9-2-1956, when Sri P. N. Sabarwal, the Deputy Chief Inspector, Shops and Commercial Establishments, UP, Kanpur, came and inspected his shop. His only contention is that he has been observing Fridays as the close days since the law nine or ten years and this he did with the approval of the District Magistrate. He further contended that from the year 1950 onwards repeated attempts were made to coerce him into changing this day, but he did not succumb to that pressure and followed the old practice of closing his shop on Fridays. It was further contended by him that Under Sec. 10 of the UP Shops and Commercial Establishments Act, 1947, the option of changing the day was with the applicant and the District authorities could not compel him to change this day. As this contention was not accepted by the trial court and it did not find favour even with the appellate court, applicant was convicted as mentioned above.

(3.) I have heard the counsel for the applicant as well as the counsel for the State and I have come to the conclusion that on merits as well as on law the contention advanced by the applicant must succeed. In my opinion the trial court came to perverse findings on the evidence placed before it and, therefore, even if there had been only one point of law involved in this application, I would have allowed this application in the interests of justice. The appellate court accepted the findings reached by the trial court, though from some of the observations made by the appellate court it does appear that perhaps if it had functioned as the trial court, it would not have reached the same findings. I will, however, take up the facts of the case a little later and I would first deal with the legal aspect of the case.