ABDUL GHANI Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners have been convicted under Section 28, Bengal Ferries Act, 1885. There are eight of them and each has been sentenced to a fine of Rs. 15. The substance of the case is that in contravention of Section 16 they have been maintaining a private ferry at Tengermari within two miles from the limits of a public ferry at Salkhi Ghat. The defence was that there is no ferry at Salkhi Ghat, that if there is such a ferry, its limits have never been defined and a conviction therefore cannot be had for plying a private ferry within two miles of such limits.

(2.) It was also contended that the distance from the public ferry to the private ferry ought to be reckoned not in a beeline but along the bank of the river, which might prove farther. The last point is clearly without substance. The calculation of distance between two points must be of the shortest distance and this must govern the application of Secs.16 and 28; if it were otherwise, and if the accused could choose at their option a circuitous route for the calculation, the result would be that the distance between any two points could be lengthened indefinitely. The other points need examination.

(3.) I shall take first the contention that no ferry existed. The facts are that the Guzri estate used at one time to maintain a private zamindari ferry from Salkhi Ghat at Salkhi to the other side of the river Mahananda. A rival ferry was started at Tengarmari within two miles, and the zamindari ferry then fell into disuse. The correspondence Exs. A and C between the District Board and the Manager, Guzri estate, shows that there was no trace of any realization from the zamindari ferry since the year 1327 (about 1920-21). However the notification dated 16 June 1928, Ex. 2, under Section 6(b) of the Act, directed that the private ferry at Salkhi on the Mahananda river be taken possession of and declared it to be a public ferry; and Notification No. 6542, L.S.G. of 25 June 1928, Ex. 3, directed that this public ferry be managed by the District Board of Purnea.