EMPEROR Vs. BUDHABHAI SAKARBHAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the Government of Bombay against an order of the Stipendiary First Class Magistrate, Ahmedabad, acquitting the accused Budhabhai Sakarbhai. The accused had been prosecuted by the Chief Officer of the Ahmedabad Municipality under Section 15(1)(c)(ii) of the Bombay Town Planning Act (Bom. 1 of 1915) for having put up a corrugated iron screen on the north-western side of his plot No. 54814 in the Ellis Bridge Town Planning scheme area without the previous permission of the Municipality

(2.) Section 15, Sub-section (1), Clause (a), of the Bombay Town Planning Act, provides that when a local authority has published a declaration of intention to make a scheme, no person shall within the area included in the scheme erect or proceed with any building or work unless he has applied for and obtained the necessary permission from the local authority.

(3.) It is not disputed that the accused put up the corrugated iron screen without obtaining the permission of the Municipality. It is also not disputed that there has been a declaration of intention to make a town planning scheme, and that the accused's plot is within the area included in the scheme. The screen complained of has been erected just above the masonry compound wall of the accused's plot, and, although it was contended by the accused at the trial that the screen was not within the area of his plot, it appears clearly from the sketch, which has been prepared for the purpose of this case, that the screen is more than a foot within the boundary of the accused's plot. The masonry compound wall, which is 1 2" thick, is on the boundary line, but just inside the accused's plot, and the screen is on the inner side of this masonry wall. It thus clearly falls within the area of the accused's plot and of the Town Planning Scheme.