SUPERINTENDENT AND REMEMBRANCER OF LEGAL AFFAIRS TO STATE OF WEST BENGAL Vs. ISWAR LAKHI JANARDAN THAKUR JEW

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the State against the respondent's acquittal of a charge under Section 451 (1) (a) read with Section 537 of the Calcutta Municipal Act, 1951. The charge was for keeping open a private market without a license granted by the Commissioner in that behalf for 1953-54.

(2.) The respondents as sebai's of a deity were, at all material times, as they still are, in occupation of premises No. 26, Indra Biswas Road, in ward No. 30, within district Cossipore of the Corporation of Calcutta. A private market without a license having been found to exist at the said premises, the respondents were prosecuted under Section 451 (1) (a) read with Section 537 of the Calcutta Municipal Act, 1951.

(3.) The respondents' defence was twofold: firstly, that they were not the owners of the market and, secondly, that the market concerned not having been declared and licensed by the Corporation as a market was not a "market" within the meaning of Clause (42) of Section 5 of the Act and that they could not, therefore, be prosecuted for keeping open a market within the meaning of Section 451 (1) (a) of the Act.