Desai, J. - (1.) The question "When a person residing in an area to which provisions of Sections 180 and 185 Municipalities Act, 1916, have been extended under Government Notification No. 72 MC/XI 70A dated 6-6-1917, gives notice to the Notified Area Committee of his intention to erect a building under Section 178 of the Act, and commences to erect it before the committee passes an order contemplated by Section 180 (1) and (2), and without calling its attention to its omission or neglect to make it in accordance with Sub-section (8) of Section 180, is he liable to be prosecuted under Section 185 o the Act as amended by Section 15, United Provinces Act II [2] of 1919?" referred to us has arisen in these circumstances : Mani Ram applicant, intending to make certain constructions within the limits of the Notified Area, Mahoba, intimated his intention to the Notified Area Committee, as required under Section 178, Municipalities Act, on 27-1-1948, shortly after without waiting for any orders of the Committee and without reminding it of the intimation given by him, he started the constructions. The Committee thereupon prosecuted him under Section 185, Municipalities Act; he has been convicted by the Court below. His revision application came up before a Bench of this Court which being of the view that the decision of this Court in Bafatan v. Emperor, 1933 ALL. L. J 1053 requires reconsideration, referred the question to this Bench.
(2.) The Municipalities Act was enacted in 1916, Section 178 of it requires that a person wishing to make certain constructions within the limits of a municipality must give notice of his intention to the Board. Section 180, as it stood in 1916, provided that the Board might refuse to sanction the work of which notice had been given or sanction it absolutely or subject to conditions and that if the Board neglected within a month of the receipt of the notice to pass any order on the intimation, the person might remind it and if it still neglected or omitted for a further period of fifteen days, it would be deemed to have sanctioned the work absolutely.
(3.) Section 185, as originally enacted, provided for the punishment of a person beginning a work without giving the notice required by Section 178, or in contravention of an order of the Board refusing sanction, or any written directions made by it. Section 337 allows the Government by Notification to declare any local area as a Notified Area and apply to it the provisions of any sections of the Act subject to sucb restrictiona and modifications as it may think fit.;