JUDGMENT
T. Nandakumar Singh, J.
1. Heard Mr. N. Ibotombi Singh, learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners as well as Mr. S. Nepolean Singh, Learned G.A. appearing for the respondent No. 1; and none appears for the respondents 2 and 3.
2. The short factual panorama of the petitioners’ case is that the petitioners of the present joint writ petition took their respective shops on lease from the respective private oweners. It is also the specific case of the petitioners that the respective shops occupied by the petitioners do not belong to the Imphal Municipal Council/Imphal Municipality, but those shops are the shops of the private land owners.
3. By this writ petition the petitioners are assailing the notice being No. IM/24/(IV)93-94(A), Imphal, the 4th November, 1998 to all the writ petitioners. The copies of the said notices dated 04.11.1998 are available at Annexure-A/2 (colly). For easy reference, one of the notices dated 04.11.1998 is quoted hereunder:
OFFICE OF THE IMPHAL MUNICIPAL COUNCIL
NOTIFICATION
Imphal, the 4th Nov.’98
To,
N. Tolpishak Devi, Kong Keithel.
No. IM/24(IV)/93-94(A) – Whereas it has come to the notice of the Imphal Municipal Council that you have indulged in selling Kom Kwa and Mana at the Eastern and Western side of Purana Bazar NgariGully without permission of this Council or any other authority. Now, therefore, you are informed to stop selling of Kom Kwa and Mana within 3(three) days from the date of receipt of this notice failing which the same will be evicted by this office and no responsibility will be taken for any loss or damages.
Sd/-
(S. Noren Singh)
Executive Officer
Imphal Municipal Council
4. From the perusal of the notice dated 04.11.1998 which has been quoted above in entirety, it is clear that the petitioners had been asked to stop selling of Kom Kwa and Mana in their shops which have been taken on lease from the private owners within 3(three) days alleging that the petitioners had not taken up necessary permission or/licence from the Council.
5. The learned Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners strenuously submits that the Municipal Council has no authority or jurisdiction to issue the impugned notification dated 04.11.1998 asking the petitioners to stop from selling of Kom Kwa and Mana in their shops. In order to substantiate his submissions, the learned Counsel appearing for the petitioners has drawn the attention of this Court to different provisions of the Manipur Municipalities Act, 1994. Chapter-XI of the Manipur Municipalities Act, 1994 deals with the markets and slaughter houses and also the requirements of taking license for certain purposes. He refers to Sections 164, 165, 166, 167 and 168 of the Manipur Municipaliteis Act, 1994. Since those sections are required to consider in this writ petition, those are quoted hereunder:
164. (1) The Nagar Panchayat or, as the case may be, the Council may, and when required by the Government shall fix places with the approval of the State Government for slaughter of animals for sale, and the Nagar Panchayat or Council may grant and withdraw licence for the use of such premises, or, if they vest in the Nagar Panchayat or Council, may charge rent for fees of the use of the places.
(2) When any such premises have been fixed, no person shall slaughter any such animal for sale within the Municipal area at any other place.
(3) Any person who slaughters for sale any animals at any place within the municipal area other than the one fixed by the Nagar Panchayat or as the case may be, the Council under this section shall be punishable with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees.
165. A Nagar Panchayat or, as the case may be, the Council shall arrange for inspection of the animal by a Veterinary Surgeon or a competent person before the animal is killed and may also arrange for inspection of the meat and organs for the purpose of certification, as may be laid down by-bye-laws of the meat for use as food.
166. No person shall carry on the profession of a butcher except under a licence from the municipality.
Nuisances from certain trades, professions, etc.
167.(1) If it is shown to the satisfaction of a Nagar Panchayat or of a Council that any building or place within the limits of the Municipality which any person uses or intendes to use as a factory or other place of business for the manufacture, storage treatment or disposal of any article, by reason of such use, or by reason of such intended use, occasions or is likely to cause a public nuisance, the Nagar Panchayat or the Council may at its option require by notice the owner of occupier of the building or place–
(a) to desist or refrain, as the case may be, from using, or allowing to be used, the building or place for such purpose, or
(b) only to use, or allow to be used, the building or place for such purpose under such conditions or after such structural alterations as the Nagar Pancyayat or the Council imposes or prescribes in the notice with the object of rendering the use of the building or place for such purpose free from objection.
(2) Whoever, after receiving a notice given under Sub-section (1) uses or allows to be used any building or place in contravention of the notice shall be punishable with fine which may extend to four hundred rupees for everyday on which be so uses or allows to be used the place or building after the date of the first conviction.
168.(1) Within such local limits as may be fixed by the municipality no place shall be used without licence from the municipality which shall be renewable annually, for any of the following purposes, namely:
(a) melting tallow:
(b) boiling offal or blood;
(c) skinning or disemboweling animal;
(d) the manufacture of bricks, pottery, tiles or time in a klin, Panja or lamp or by any other similar method;
(e) as a soap-house, oil-boiling house, dying house;
(f) as tannery, slaughter-house;
(g) as a manufactory or place of business from which offensive or unwholesome odour may arise;
(h) as a yard or depot for hay, straw, bamboo, thatching grass, jute or other dangerously inflammable material for the purpose of any trade;
(i) any store-house for kerosene, petroleum napthamcoal-tar or any inflammable oil or wholesale stock of matches exceeding one hundred gross;
(j) as a shop for the sale of meat;
(k) as a place for the storage of rags or bones, or both;
(l) tea stall;
(m) sweetmeat stall;
(n) hotel or eating house;
(o) aerated water;
(p) bakery, including biscuit factory;
(2) Such licence shall not be withheld unless the municipality has reason to believe that the business which it is intended to establish or maintain would be offensive or dangerous to persons residing in or frequenting the neighbourhood.
(3) The municipality may, subject, to such restrictions, if any, as it may impose, extend the provisions of this section to yards or depots for trade in coal, coke, timber or wood.
(4) The grant of a licence for the purposes mentioned in Clause (i) of Sub-section (1) shall be consistent with the provision of the Petroleum Act, 1934 and no such licence shall be granted unless the said provisions have been complied with by the applicant for the licence.
6. Under Section 164 of the Manipur Municipalities Act, 1994, the concerned individuals are required to take the necessary permission from the Council for slaughter of animals for sale and also use of the premises for slaughter of animals within the municipal area. Section 167 of the Manipur Municipalities Act, 1994 deals with the requirement for taking licence from the Municipal Council for using the premises for any purposes which is likely cause to a public nuisance. Section 168 of the Manipur Municipalities Act 1994 deals with the requirement of taking permission for using the building or place of Municipality for the pursposes mentioned therein, i.e.:
a) melting tallow:
b) boiling offal or blood;
c) skinning or disemboweling animal;
d) the manufacture of bricks, pottery, tiles or time in a klin, Panja or lamp or by any other similar method;
(e) as a soap-house, oil-boiling house, dying house;
(f) as tannery, slaughter-house;
(g) as a manufactory or place of business from which offensive or unwholesome adour may arise;
(h) as a yard or depot for hay, straw, bamboo, thatching grass, jute or other dangerously inflammable material for the purpose of any trade;
(i) any store-house for kerosene, petroleum napthamcoal-tar or any inflammable oil or wholesale stock of matches exceeding one hundred gross;
(j) as a shop for the sale of meat;
(k) as a place for the storage of rags or bones, or both;
(l) tea stall;
(m) sweetmeat stall;
(n) hotel or eating house;
(o) aerated water;
(p) bakery, including biscuit factory;
7. The respondents 2 and 3 filed their affidavit-in-opposition stating that the petitioners are required to take necessary permit or licence under byelaws called “the Municipal Markets Bye-laws”. A copy of the said Municipal Markets Bye-laws is annexed in the affidavit-in-opposition filed by the respondents 2 and 3.
8. From the mere perusal of the Municipal Markets Bye-laws, it is clear that the bye-laws will be applicable to the stall and shop sides owned by the Municipal Council. As discussed above, it is an undeniable fact that the petitioners are not occupying any shop or place of the Imphal Municipal Council, but they are using the shop sides or places by taking those on lease from the private owners. In order to substantiate the cases that they are the lease holders of private shop sides, the petitioners have annexed copies of the lease deed at Annexures-A/1 (colly). From the perusal of the Annexures-A/1 (colly), it is clear that the petitioners have taken their shops on lease from the private land owners and not from the Imphal Municipal Council. From the conjoined reading of Chapter-XI of the Manipur Municipalities Act, 1994 which consists of Sections 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178 and 179 and Manipur Municipal Bye-laws, it is clear that for selling of Kom Kwa and Mana in the shops belonging to the private individuals, permission or licence is not required to be obtained from the Imphal Municipal Council.
9. For the reasons discussed above and also keeping in view of the relevant provisions of the Manipur Municipalities Act, 1994 and Municipal Market Byelaws, this Court is of the considered view that interference to the impugned notifications dated 04.11.1998 (Annexure-A/2 colly) is called for.
10. Accordingly the impugned notifications are hereby quashed and set aside. The writ petition is allowed. Parties are to bear their own costs.