JAGAT SINGH Vs. CHIEF COMMISSIONER STATE OF AJMER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) JAGAT Singh, proprietor of the Khalsa Hotel and Restaurant, Ajmer, has filed this petition for a writ of mandamus or an order or direction in the nature thereof directing the Chief Commissioner, State of Ajmer, not to prosecute or threaten to prosecute through his subordinate officers either the petitioner or any of his customers or visitors for any alleged contravention of notification No. E (1)/3/54-FWE. , dated 19-81955. In the writ 1966 Cri. L. J. D. F. 42 petition, I have heard the learned Counsel for the applicant and" the learned Government Pleader,

(2.) THE notification in question prohibits 'any person visiting any' premises used as a restaurant within the local limits of the municipalities of Ajmer, Beawar Kekri and Cantonment area of Nasirabad to the State of Ajmer, from keeping or taking any quantity of foreign liquor pr country liquor into the said premises'. It further prohibits any owner of the restaurant or his employee or his agent from keeping or allowing or. suffering to be kept into or taking upon the said premises any quantity of foreign liquor or country liquor. In - 'state v Shivlal', Cri. A. No. 21 of 1953 (Ajme,r) (A ). I had held that the Chief Commissioner had no power to issue a notification against the public generally. It is contended that the word 'any person' to only a substitute for the 'public'. There is force in the contention of the learned Counsel. But this writ petition has not been filed by the petitioner In assertion of his individual or personal rights. He has filed the petition in vindication of his rights as a proprietor of the hotel and restaurant. As such, I am unable to give him any relief so far as the first part of the notification is concerned.

(3.) AS regards the second part, there can be no denying the fact tiiat restaurant owners, their employees and their agents constitute 'classes of persons' against whom a prohibitory order can be issued under Section 16 (4) of Regulation I of 1915. This sub-section reads: (4) Notwithstanding anything contained in the foregoing subsections, the Chief Commissioner, may, by notification, prohibit the possession by any person or class of persons, either throughout the province or in any specified area, of any excisable article either absolutely, or subject to such conditions as he may prescribe.