EMPEROR Vs. CSMODI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application in revision in which the applicant asks us to review his conviction under by-law No. 27 of the bye-laws made under the Bombay Tramways Act (Bom. I of 1874) for breach of the transfer regulation No. 10 made under the Act. The learned officiating Chief Presidency Magistrate convicted the accused and imposed a fine of Rs. 10.

(2.) The facts are that on the day in question the applicant boarded a tram at Flora Fountain and took a ticket for Bhendi Bazar. The ticket required him to change trams at Bori Bunder, and this he did, but instead of taking a tram proceeding along the Hornby Road direct to Bhendi Bazar he took a tram proceeding along the Cruikshank Road to Dhobi Talao and then along Kalbadevi Road to Bhendi Bazar, the result being, in effect, that he travelled over two sides of a triangle instead of over one. The conductor of the tram into which the applicant changed at Bori Bunder, on examining his ticket, told him that he was in a wrong tram and must get into a tram proceeding along the Hornby Road. The applicant refused to get out of the tram. Thereupon the traffic regulator was summoned and he directed that the applicant should be issued a fresh ticket for the route along the Kalbadevi Road and should be charged one anna for that ticket. The applicant refused to purchase a fresh ticket. It is suggested on behalf of the applicant that by issuing a fresh ticket the breach (if any) of the transfer regulations was waived. But, in my opinion, inasmuch as the applicant refused to accept a ticket on the terms upon which it was offered, viz., the payment of one anna, there was no waiver of the breach of any regulation, which might have been committed by the applicant.

(3.) Now, the relevant sections of the Act and bye-laws are these:-- Section 24 of the Bombay Tramways Act authorises the grantees to make regulations for regulating the travelling in or upon any carriage belonging to them. Section 25 provides that any person offending against any bye-law made under the provisions of the next preceding section shall forfeit for every offence any sum not exceeding twenty-five rupees, to be imposed in such bye-laws as a penalty for such offence. Then Section 26 provides that all penalties under the Act or under any bye-law made in pursuance of the Act may be recovered and enforced before a Police Magistrate of Bombay by a summary proceeding, and then the section provides for the issue of a warrant by the Magistrate for recovery of the amount.