BERCKEFELD Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant Mr. Berckefeld, Manager of the Bally Khal Bone Mills, has been convicted under Section 290 Indian Penal Code, of committing a public nuisance, and has been punished with the maximum penalty, a fine of Rs. 200.

(2.) The nuisance complained of was that be kept a stack of bones, weighing about 100 tons, in the mill-yard exposed to the sun and rain for a time sufficient to cause them on the 17th July last to become rotten and to emit a smell so offensive as to cause common injury or annoyance to persons living in the vicinity and using a public road passing by the mill building. The prosecution was instituted in consequence of information given by Mr. Macpherson, the Manager of the Baranagore Jute Mill, which adjoins the compound of the Bally Khal Bone Mills, and after a local enquiry had been made by Mr. Ballantine, Sub-Deputy Magistrate.

(3.) It seems that on the 1 December 1905 in consequence of a complaint made the District Magistrate passed an order under Section 133 Criminal Procedure Code, directing the Manager of the Bone Mill not to stack bones in the open, where they would be exposed to sun and rain, and accordingly after receipt of Mr. Ballantine's report an order was passed for the prosecution of the appellant under Section 188 Indian Penal Code, and the case was made over to the Sadar Subdivisional Magistrate for trial. After however the accused had appeared, the prosecution under Section 188 Indian Penal Cede was withdrawn by the Government Prosecutor, for reasons stated in the Magistrate's order of the 13 August, and the prosecution under Section 290 Indian Penal Code instituted. Witnesses on both sides were afterwards examined and the accused was convicted on the 28 August 1906.