SHIRAZ CINEMA Vs. SRINAGAR MUNICIPAL COUNCIL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Upon an application moved by respondent No.2 on 20/11/1976, the Administrator Municipal Council Srinagar referred the matter to the District Magistrate, vide No. Gen/I-3/2084-87 -dated 5/9/1977 with the request for suspension of licence of the Proprietor of Shiraz Cinema till the generator is removed by the management in order to avoid nuisance to the residents of the area. The District Magistrate issued notice to the petitioner and proceeded with the case when an application was filed by the petitioners herein for draping the proceeding because according to them the learned District Magistrate did not have the jurisdiction to proceed the case any further. The respondent No.2 had submitted for taking appropriate action on the grounds that the petitioner herein were having a generator in their Cinema which at a distance for about 6 feet from his house. The said generator was a nuisance to him and his other members of the family. His children who were school and college going students had been facing inconvenience in their studies by the constant loud noise of the generator. The management of the Cinema had been requested to remove the generator to some other place so as to save his family from nuisance, but no heed was paid which forced him to approach the authorities.

(2.) The proceedings before the District Magistrate were challenged mainly on the ground that the alleged nuisance was not a public nuisance within the meaning of Section 133 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which could warrant any action against the petitioners herein by the District Magistrate. The District Magistrate after hearing the arguments of the learned counsel for the parties held that he had the jurisdiction to deal with the case irrespective of the fact whether the nuisance was public or private. He further ruled that the question of the maintainability of the proceedings was a question touching the merits of the case, which can be decided at the conclusion of the proceedings. Aggrieve4 by the order of the District Magistrate, the present petition has been filed with the prayed for quashing those proceedings as the same are without Jurisdiction.

(3.) I have heard the learned counsel for the parties and have perused the record of the District Magistrate.