NATHU MAL Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are twelve applications in revision against the applicants conviction under Section 3 of the Public Gambling Act of 1867.

(2.) The whole question to be determined in these petitions is whether the applicants were keeping what may be styled as a common gaming house.

(3.) The facts found are these. There is an enclosure or barah belonging to a firm Piru Mal Radha Baman. It was let out to three persons, Gopal Das, Mul Chand and Nathu Mal who are among the applicants. They, in their turn, sub-let the premises to other people so that there were 31 compartments in all. In all these 31 compartments gambling was going on when the police made a raid. The following method was pursued in this particular gambling. The person occupying a booth had some receipt books and sheets of papors. These were undoubtedly instruments of gambling in these cases. A customer came and he said that he would bet so much against so much, if a particular figure formed one of the two last digits of the average price at which opium was sold by auction in Calcutta. The gambling was held on the day the auction sale was held in Calcutta and on this particular occasion the figures were 1 and 4. A telegram conveying the information was received from Calcutta, at the time the police were on the premises. Now on a sheet of paper would be put down the figures 1 to 10. On the same sheet of paper would again be put down the figuros 1 to 100. A customer would bet, say Rs. 1, against the figure 5. The booth-keeper would agree to pay him Rs. 10 if the figure 5 formed the last digit of the average sale price of opium. Similarly if a customer bet on the figure 15, something like this would be arranged. The customer would bet Rs. 5 and the booth-keeper would agree to pay Rs. 150, if the last two digits of the average sale price of opium came to be 15. A receipt would be granted to the customer and at once a note would be made on the sheet of paper containing all the numbers against the figure 15. Such sheets are before this Court and show that against some of the figures on which a betting took place the amounts which the booth-keeper had agreed to pay were noted. It has been found on evidence that it would be open to the booth-keeper to atop further betting on any particular figure. For example, if, on the figures 1 and 4 which actually were the last two digits of the sale price of opium, the booth-keeper found that he had too many bets against him, he would be at liberty to stop further betting on those figures.