NABIN CHANDRA GOGOI Vs. THE STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner has moved against his conviction and sentence under Section 429 of the Indian Penal Code.

(2.) ON 5 -2 -54, at about 10 A.M., a rhinoceros was shot dead at village Hahpani. The petitioner, along with a few others who have since been acquitted or discharged, were sent up for trial, under Section 429 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 25(g) of the Assam Forest Regulation. The charge under Section 25(g) of the Forest Regulation failed because the occurrence was found to have taken place outside the game sanctuary. The petitioner was, however, Convicted by the learned Magistrate under, Section 429 of the Indian Penal Code for having shot and killed the rhinoceros with a gun, and that conviction has been upheld by the learned Sessions Judge on appeal. The only evidence against the petitioner was that of one Sudharam Gogoi (P.W. 4) who said that he saw the petitioner firing at the rhinoceros with a single barrelled muzzle loading gun, and later the animal was found dead. The evidence of this witness has been believed by the two Courts below who have, therefore, convicted the petitioner.

(3.) THE learned Counsel for the State has submitted that at any rate an offence had been committed under Section 3 of the Wild Birds and Animals Protection Act (Act 8 of 1912) and, therefore, the conviction of the petitioner should be altered' to one under Section 4 of the Act and an appropriate sentence imposed on him. But this cannot be done for the obvious reason that there is nothing to show in this case that there was any such notification by the Government declaring that the offence, if any, was committed in a close season, as prohibited by the law.