MEWA RAM Vs. MUNICIPAL BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In the year 1931 the Municipal Board of Muttra purporting to act in exercise of the powers vested in it under Secs.293 and 298(2)H(b) & J(d), Municipalities Act (2 of 1916) framed certain bye-laws "for the regulation of stands for motor vehicles and hackney carriages within the Muttra Municipality" and the question of the validity or otherwise of those bye-laws has occasioned the present reference to this Full Bench. By bye-law No. 1, seven specified places within Municipal limits were "fixed as stands for motor cars, lorries and hackney carriages" and bye-law No. 2 enjoined that no motor oar or lorry plying for hire shall be allowed to halt or run for the purpose of searching passengers at any public street or place other than the stands fixed for the purpose.

(2.) Bye-law No. 3 provided about the maximum speed limit of a lorry or car within the Municipal limits and then the following provision was made by bye-law No. 4: The places cited in Rule 1 above will not be used as a stand for any motor vehicle or hackney carriages unless the following charges fixed are paid;

(3.) After having framed these bye-laws the Municipal Board sold by public auction on 10 June 1931, the right of collecting charges from public vehicles occupying Municipal stands at various places, and the right of collecting such charges at one of those stands was knocked down to Mewa Ram, appellant. The suit in which the questions referred to this Bench have arisen was to enforce payment of the amount for which Mewa Ram had purchased the right to collect the said charges. Mewa Ram contested the suit inter alia on two grounds, viz. : (1) that bye-laws Nos. 2 and 4 were ultra vires of the Municipal Board, and (2) that the Municipal Board was not competent to transfer the right to collect the charges fixed by bye- law No. 4. These contentions of Mewa Ram were overruled by the Courts below and the claim of the Municipal Board was decreed. Mewa Ram filed a second appeal in this Court and the Bench hearing the appeal referred the following questions for decision to a Full Bench: (1) Whether the Municipal Board of Muttra was competent to make a bye-law that "no motor car or lorry plying for hire shall be allowed to halt or run for the purpose of searching passengers at any public street or place other than the stands fixed for the purpose?" (2) Whether the levy of any charge for the use of stands within the municipal limits of Muttra was within the competence of the Municipal Board or not? (3) Whether the right to the said charge and the right to collect it can be transferred and whether the contract for such a transfer is valid.