MADURA MUNICIPALITY Vs. PMMUTHU BALU CHETTY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition has been filed by the Municipal Council of Madura against the decision of the Sub-Magistrate of Madura Town. Respondent was charged under Secs.249 and 338 of the Madras District Municipalities Act with having failed to take out a license for using a 22 horse power gas engine to work a rice hulling machine. The Sub-Magistrate refused to convict. He found that the case was governed by Section 250 and not by Section 249 of the Act. He was further of opinion that machinery used for rice hulling was not the kind of machinery contemplated by Schedule V (q).

(2.) It is argued on behalf of the Municipal Council that all that is required by Section 250 is permission for the original construction or establishment of a factory and that for the actual working of the factory an annual license is necessary under Section 249. I agree with the Sub- Magistrate that the argument is unsound. The Act clearly intends to draw a distinction between what it describes as "industries" and "factories." The former are dealt with in Section 249 and the latter in Section 250. The industries included in Section 249 and Schedule V are licensed by the Chairman subject to the control of the Council. The power factories referred to in Section 250 are regulated by the Council itself subject to the orders of the Governor in Council.

(3.) It would, I think, be completely anomalous to hold that, after the Council had granted permission for the erection of a , mechanical power factory, it is open to the Chairman to refuse a license for its being worked or to impose impracticable conditions on its working.