RAOKHAN AYUBKHAN Vs. STATE OF BOMBAY
LAWS(BOM)-1954-8-16
HIGH COURT OF BOMBAY
Decided on August 20,1954

Raokhan Ayubkhan Appellant
VERSUS
STATE OF BOMBAY Respondents


Referred Judgements :-

A C PATEL VS. VISHWANATH CHADA [REFERRED TO]


JUDGEMENT

VYAS, J. - (1.)THE applicant, who is the proprietor and manager of a lodging house known as the Mandvi Central Lodge in Bombay, has been convicted of an offence under Section 131(a) of the Bombay Police Act (Act XXII of 1951) for running the said lodging house without obtaining a police licence under Section 33(w)(i) of the Act. He has been fined Rs. 50 and has further been directed under Section 131A(2) to close down his lodging house until he obtains a police licence under the Act.
(2.)NOW , there is no dispute that the applicant does not possess a police licence for running this lodging house ; but his contention is that his lodging house does not fall within the purview of Sub -section (70) of Section 2 of the Bombay Police Act, which defines a 'place of public entertainment' as any place where any kind of food or drink is supplied for consumption on the premises thereof. According to the applicant, the essential ingredient which makes a particular place a place of public entertainment, under the Bombay Police Act is that food or drink is supplied there for consumption, and he says that as this ingredient is lacking in the case of his lodging house, it is not a place of public entertainment under the Act and he does not need to possess a police licence to run it.
The learned trial Magistrate has held that, as a lodging house is included amongst the places mentioned in the later part of the definition of a place of public entertainment which says 'and includes..,' every lodging house, no matter whether food or drink is or is not supplied on the premises thereof for consumption, would be a place of public entertainment within the meaning of Sub -section (10) of Section 2, and, therefore, it would be an offence under the Act to run any lodging house without a police licence.

(3.)THUS the point of law which has arisen for our decision in this appeal is whether the applicant's lodging house, even on the assumption that no food or drink is supplied on the premises thereof for consumption, is a place of public entertainment within the meaning of Section 2, Sub -section (10), of the Act. Our answer is in the affirmative.


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