D.S. Tewatia, J. - (1.) PETITIONERS are petty retail shopkeepers. Some of them sell ban -habbar, bamboos, paints, varnish, turpentine oil, slaked lime (chuna) and some of them are doing welding work. Some others sell -hay, green grass and Toori. None of them owns a brick -kiln, Chuna -Bhatti (lime Kiln) nor they manufacture paints, turpentine or spirits nor do they store these articles. The Petitioners also do not manufacture iron safe, trunks nor they have a yard or depot for carrying on their trade in respective items.
(2.) THE Respondent Municipal Committee by notification dated 28.1.1977, Annexure P -1, has made regulation with a view to regulate the running of dangerous or offensive trade within the limits of its jurisdiction and by that notification has for the first time included lime kiln, storing for sale of unsaked lime, Chuna, Toori, ban -babbar and other articles mentioned in Annexure P -1. By virtue of the said notification a licence fee is required to be paid for carrying on the business in question in any place within the area subject to the authority of the Municipal Committee, Kharar, at the rate mentioned in the said notification. It has been interalia asserted in the petition that the Petitioners are not liable to pay any licence of the kind.
(3.) SECTION 121 of the Punjab Municipal Act (hereinafter called the Act) which prohibits the use of place for carrying on the given trades without a licence fee is in the following terras: - (1) No place within a municipality shall be used for any of the following purposes: - melting tallow (dressing raw hides), building bones, offal or blood; as a soap house, oil -boiling house, dyeing house or tannery ; as a brickfield, brick -kiln, (charcoal -kiln) pottery or lime kiln ; as any other manufactory, engine -house, (Store -house) or place of business from which offensive or unwholesome smells, (gases), noises or smoke arise; as a yard or depot for trade in (unslaked lime) hay, straw, that chinggrass, wood, charcoal or coal, or other dangerously inflammable material ; as a store -house for any -explosive, or for petroleum or any inflammable oil or spirit ; except under a licence from the committee which shall be renewable annually: XX XX XX XX XX XX.;