Judgement

KAPUR J. : Two important questions arise for decision in this case of a small magnitude and the State has filed this appeal not for the purpose of obtains a conviction but because of the importance of the questions raised and implications of the judgment of the Judicial Commissioner. The respondent was convicted of an offence under S.12(a) of the Bombay Prevention of Gambling Act (Act IV of 1887 hereinafter termed the Bombay Act) as applied to Kutch and was sentenced to a fine of Rs. 50 or in default simple imprisonment for 15 days and forfeiture of the amounts recovered from the respondent of the time of the commission of the offence. He took a revision to the Judicial Commissioner of Kutch, who held that the Act under which the respondent had been convicted had not been validly extended to and was not in force in the State of Kutch. It is the correctness of this decision which has been canvassed before us.

2. There was sufficient evidence against the respondent which was accepted by the trying magistrate; and if the Act was validly extended to and was in operation in the State of Kutch, his conviction by the learned magistrate was correct and his acquittal by the learned