An order under S. 144, Criminal P. C., must be served in accordance with the provisions of s. 134, Criminal P. C. Service by affixing the notice on a bamboo pole near the scene of the dispute is no service at all.

Harries, C. J. :- These are two connected revisions which can be disposed of by this judgment.

2. Criminal Revision No. 425 of 1950 is a petition for revision of an order directing the prosecution of the petitioner under s. 188, Penal Code, for breach of an order made by the Sub-Divisional Officer of Uluberia under S. 144, Criminal P. C.

3. Criminal Revision 493 of 1950 is a petition for revision of an order directing the prosecution of the petitioner and three others on a charge of theft.

4. It appears that in the year 1940, the petitioner and his brothers leased from the Burdwan Raj the right to remove sand from sand banks in the Rupnarayan River. This lease gave them a right to remove sand at three points within the area of Police Station Daspur in the district of Midnapore. The lease was originally for three years, but has been renewed from time to time.

5.It seems that one Nalini Mohan Biswas leased the right to take sand from the Rupnarayan River (from?) the Collector of Howrah and in June of 1949, the petitioner applied to a Magistrate in the Midnapore district for an order under s.144, Criminal P. C.,restraining Biswas from taking sand from these areas in the Rupnarayan River. The learned Magistrate apparently made an order restraining Biswas. Thereupon, on August 13 Biswas applied to the Magistrate at Uluberia for an order against the petitioner under S.144, Criminal P. C. These proceedings were not pressed as appellate proceedings were pending from the order of the Magistrate restraining Biswas under S.144, Criminal P. C. On 5-12-1949, the Sessions Judge of Midnapore affirmed the order made by the Magistrate against Biswas under S. 144.

6. On 12-1-1950, an application was made by Biswas to the Sub-Divisional Officer of Uluberia for an order under S. 144, Criminal P. C., No notice was served on the petitions. Kalipadadas Karmakar and an immediate order under S.144 was made and it is said that this order was served.

7.A complaint was made that the petitioner in criminal Revision No. 425 of 1950 in breach of this order took sand from the Rupnarayan River and therefore committed an offence under S. 188 of the Indian Penal Code. His prosecution was accordingly directed.

8. A complaint was also made that the petitioner and three others were taking sand from the char in the Rupnarayan River and therefore had committed theft and the charge sheet was received and it is urged that these proceedings should be quashed. It appears to me beyond all question that the dispute in this case is really a dispute between the Burdwan Raj and the Collector of Howrah and that attempts are being made to establish the title of the Collector of Howrah by means of criminal proceedings. The criminal Courts were never intended to decide nice questions as to the ownership of chars in a river which frequently change their position. The questions involved in this case are probably extremely difficult questions to decide and are questions which could only be decided satisfactorily in a civil Court. Nevertheless, the Sub-Divisional Officer of Uluberia having, as his order shows, received a memorandum from the Collector of Howrah, who of course is Biswass lessee (lessor?) found no difficulty in coming to the conclusion that this char was within the district of Howrah and therefore could be leased to Biswas. It seems to me that a criminal Court in the district of Howrah is hardly an appropriate tribunal to decide whether the Collector and District Magistrate of Howrah who is the immediate superior of all Magistrates in the district is or is not entitled to lease property to others. In any event, I should have imagined before arriving at any conclusion that the learned Sub-Divisional Officer would have proceeded with great care. What he did, however, was to make an ex parte order when there was no urgency in the matter at all. He simply made it because a police officer thought that Kalipadadas Karmakar should be restrained from collecting sums in resp