DHRUBA PRASAD PAL Vs. CHAIRMAN PURULIA MUNICIPALITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has been convicted under Section 192, Bihar and prissa Municipal Act and has been sentenced" to pay a fine of Rs. 100, and in default to undergo simple imprisonment for one month.

(2.) The case for the prosecution is that the petitioner started construction of a compound wall to his house without the necessary permission of the Chairman of the Purulia Municipality in the month of July, 1950. He was served, with a notice by the municipality to demolish the wall but the petitioner did not do so.

(3.) The defence which could be gathered from the records of this case is that the petitioner had made an application to the municipality on 4th July 1950, complaining against his neighbour who, by constructing some structure, was encroaching upon his lands. The petitioner wanted the municipality to stop the construction of his neighbour's structure. No action was taken by the municipality, and the petitioner on or about 12th July 1950, after having waited for about a week or so, started construction of a compound wall to his house on the 'parti' land. On 12th July 1950, the petitioner had moved the municipality for according sanction to the construction of a compound wall; but it appears that it was refused and he was asked to submit a regular complaint. On 27th July 1950, an application (Ex. 7) was made by the petitioner to the municipality for extension of time for carrying out the orders of the municipality to the effect that the compound wall constructed should' be demolished. That application refers to the application filed by the petitioner on 4th July 1950. After he was refused sanction to construct a compound wall, he filed an appeal which (sic) was provided for in the Municipal Act; but before the disposal of that appeal, sanction to prosecute the petitioner was given on 16th September 1950, by the Chairman of the Purulia Municipality,