The legality of mobile courts under the Calcutta Municipal Act and the fundamental right to legal representation in such proceedings.

( 1 ) THE petitioner hag been convicted under Section 386 (i) (c), read with Section 488, Calcutta Municipal Act, for having kept some cattle at NOS. 22a and 22b, Southern Avenue, without having a license therefor. The sentence passed upon him is the maximum provided for in the section, viz. , a fine of Rs. 250, but the learned Magistrate added that in default of payment he was to undergo simple imprisonment for 40 days. It appears that after recording the conviction the Magistrate purported to proceed under Section 388, Criminal P. C. , but as the petitioner was not prepared to take advantage of the option provided for in that section, the learned Magistrate was prepared to send him to jail. But shortly thereafter a brother of his appeared and offered bail and on that bail he was released.

( 2 ) IT is not disputed that the petitioner did keep a few heads of cattle at the premises concerned and that at the relevant time he did not hold any license which would authorise him to use the place for keeping cattle. Even in the petition to this Court it has not been claimed that the petitioner held any license at the time or that the finding that he wag keeping cattle at Nos. 22a and 22b, Southern Avenue, is not correct, in fact, at the trial he pleaded guilty. What was urged in support of the Rule were only certain legal objections in various forms.

( 3 ) THE first ground taken related to the circumstance that the trial of the petitioner took place near the Kalighat Park in a motor van. It appears that on that day, one of the Municipal Magistrates was out in the streets of Calcutta, holding a mobile Court and it was before that Court that the petitioner was produced for his trial. Mr. Eoy, who appears on behalf of the petitioner, contended that the Kalighat Park had not been prescribed as a place where a Municipal Magistrate might sit for the despatch of business and that in the absence of a proper Notification to that effect under Section 531, Calcutta Municipal Act, the proceeding in which the petitioner had been convicted was utterly void.

( 4 ) MR. Chatterji who appears on behalf of the Corporation has, however, produced before us a Notification which is Notification No. 7532-J, dated 19-12-1950, by which the Government of West Bengal directed that in addition to the times and places prescribed by earlier Notifications, the Municipal Magistrates might, at their discretion sit at any time of the day or night anywhere in Calcutta, as defined in Clauses 11 of Section 3, Calcutta Municipal Act. Mr. Boy contended that even this Notification did not meet his objection, because to declare in a general manner that the Municipal Magistrates might hold their sittings anywhere they liked and at any hour of the day they pleased, was not to prescribe the times and places for sittings of the Court, as contemplated by Section 531. I am unable to accept that contention as correct. The section authorises the Local Government to prescribe the times and places at which the Magistrates shall sit for the despatch of business. If they are minded to prescribe all hours of the day and all places within Calcutta, as they well may under the wide terms of the section, I cannot see how it can be contended that a Notification in the terms of the Notification before us will not he appropriate for the purpose or will be contrary either to the letter or to the spirit of the section. 'times' must inqlude all times and 'places' must include all places. It may be that if Courts are held indiscriminately at different places of the City at different times and the same accused is directed to appear at different places on different days, inconvenience may be caused. It may also be that if the proceedings are begun and terminated at a single sitting of the Mobile Court at some particular place in the City, a person who is tried by the Court at such a sitting, will be prejudiced in the matter of conducting his defence. Such objections, however, wil