MAKSOOD ALI Vs. PRESIDENT, UNION BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a reference by the Judicial Commissioner of Chota Nagpur recommending that the order of Mr. S.W.A. Bilgrami, Deputy Magistrate with first class powers at Daltonganj dated 25 February 1938 passed under Section 133, Criminal P.C., against the opposite party may be modified in the manner suggested, by the learned Judge. The order passed was that the opposite party as butchers do close the business of slaughtering animals and selling meat and beef in their respective houses within a month. The learned Judicial Commissioner thought that this order was far more drastic than was warranted by the findings and therefore recommended that, as the effect of this order would be to deprive the butchers of their means of livelihood, they should not be deprived of those means without being given a chance to improve their methods. They have been admittedly carrying on the business up to the date of the order. The learned Judge recommended that the order should be altered in this wise that an order should be passed in these terms that the butchers may be ordered "to regulate their business in such a way as to eliminate the defects noticed."

(2.) We have heard the learned advocate on behalf of the opposite party and Mr. Awadesh Nandan Sahay on behalf of the Crown. The proceedings were started as a result of an application before the Subdivisional Magistrate of Daltongunj filed by the tahsildar of the Union Board of Garhwa dated 6 October 1937. The allegations in that petition were in brief that owing to the slaughter house being near the public institutions and the way in which the slaughter house is kept and the meat and beef are kept for sale, the butchers were creating a great nuisance to the public and the members of the public living in that locality and to the general passersby.

(3.) It was also alleged that the bones and hides that are kept in the houses of the opposite party give out bad smell causing a complete nuisance to the public in the neighbourhood. For several years past the Health Officer of the school and the other authorities were alleged therein to have pointed out that the existence of this slaughtering house and the carrying on of the trade so close to the English High School had the result that the hostel and the school were rendered insanitary and undesirable. The Inspector of Chota Nagpur Division, it is stated, had also strongly condemned the existence of this slaughter house and had directed the authorities of the school to take proper steps in the matter. The Union Board, it was then stated in the application, made every attempt to stop the nuisance but owing to the alleged obstinacy of the opposite party the nuisance still continued and now that the nuisance had become very great and was injurious to the health and physical comfort of the community, he, the petitioner, prayed that proper proceedings should be taken to stop and prohibit the nuisance. Seven witnesses were examined on behalf of the complainant.