( 1 ) THE facts giving rise to this application are that opponent No. 1 has been serving as a Sanitary Inspector in the Municipality of Mehsana. He filed a complaint against the two applicants in the Court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class at Mehsana in respect of their having committed an offence for putting up some construction without obtaining the permission of the Municipality punishable under sec. 155 (7) of the Gujarat Municipalities Act 1963 The complaint did not bear any Court fee stamp. That led the applicants-accused in the case to present an application Ex. 5 inter alia alleging that the complainant is not a municipal officer and as such not a public Servant which is exempted from affixing any Court-fee stamp on the complaint filed by him and since the complaint bears no Court-fee stamp as required by law it is liable to be dismissed. After hearing the other side the learned Magistrate passed an order wherein he observed that under sec. 73 of the Gujarat Municipalities Act every municipal officer or servant of the municipality is a public servant defined in sec. 31 of the Indian Penal Code. Since the complaint was thus filed by a public servant view