JUDGMENT

A.N. Mulla, J. - The District Board Muzaffarnagar prosecuted Noor Mohammad and eight others u/s 175 of the District Boards Act, 1920, for breach of Rule 7 of the bye-laws framed u/s 174(1) and Section 106 of the District Boards Act. These bye-laws were published in the UP Gazette of 23-1-1954, Part III at page 36.

2. Bye-law No. 7 reads as follows:

No person shall work or run a sugar factory within the rural area of the district unless and until he has been granted on payment of the requisite fee a licence for the same by the District Board and possess such a licence for the relevant period.

3. The word 'factory' defined in these bye-laws includes a flour mill, a cane crusher and other kinds of machineries. The charge against the opposite parties was that they were running factories in Jalalabad town which is a rural area appertaining to the District Board, Muzaffarnagar, in the year 1953-54 without taking out the required licences.

4. Two of the opposite parties Phul Chand and Bhullan Singh were prosecuted in the same case. In all eight complaints were filed.

5. The opposite parties admitted that they were running factories, but they contended that the factories were situate in