Mariappan, the appellant herein, stands convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 500, for an offence under section 42 (1) read with section 123 of the Motor Vehicles Act.

2. Bus bearing Registration No. MDS 9370 is a contract carriage registered in the name of one Muthuswamy. This bus was driven by the petitioner on 13th December, 1968 as a stage carriage. This was detected by P.W.1, the Reserve Sub-Inspector. The petitioner in defence stated that he did not receive any cash from any passenger and that the members of a tourist party alone were in this bus. Not accepting his defence, the learned Magistrate has convicted him as stated above. The correctness of this conviction is now canvassed in this appeal.

3. Murugesan (P.W. 2) who was in this bus on that day, has sworn that he paid Rs. 10 into the hands of the driver at the time when he got into the bus. He has further sworn that the driver gave him a token and that this token was collected back when the bus left the place. His further evidence is that he was not a member of any party and that he was an individual passenger. There is no reason to disbelieve this evidence and his evidence establishes that this bus was