NARAYAN GOPAL KARADKAR Vs. HANUMANT RAMRAO PALKAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant, who was the complainant in the Court below, has filed this appeal with a view to challenge the order of acquittal passed by the learned Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Vadgaon (Mawal), in Criminal Case No. 475 of 1966 on his file.

(2.) THE person by whom the complaint in the Court below was filed was one Karadkar, an officer of the Lonavala Municipal Borough. There is a Railwaymen's Co -operative Society at Lonavala and a canteen was being conducted by that Society within the limits of the Municipal Borough at Lonavala. The accused in the Court below was the Manager of that canteen. Although he had taken out the necessary licence for the purpose of conducting that canteen during the year 1962 -63, he continued to conduct the canteen during the following years without applying for and taking out the requisite licence on payment of the requisite fee to the Borough Municipality of Lonavala. The Borough Municipality, therefore, passed a resolution (exh. 6) dated March 15, 1966, sanctioning the prosecution of this accused and in accordance with that resolution, the complaint in the Court below was filed by Mr. Karadkar on May 13, 1966. It was the ease of the prosecution that the accused having conducted the canteen It Lonavala from the year 1963 -64 till 1965 -66 without the necessary licence had committed an offence punishable under Section 172 read with Section 61(1)(b)(ii) of the Bombay Municipal Boroughs Act, 1925.

(3.) THAT contention of the accused having found favour with the learned Magistrate, the accused came to be acquitted of the charge levelled against him and that acquittal is now being challenged on behalf of the Borough Municipality of Lonavala in this appeal.