1914 Present: Pereira J. and Ennis J.

ZILVA v. SINNO

Excise Inspector enlisting services of constable to help him to search for excisable articles-Obstruction to constable-Charge of obstructing. Excise Inspector-Power of Excise Inspector to search house.

An Excise Inspector may legitimately enlist the services of a police constable to help him in searching a house for excisable articles in any case in which the Inspector himself has the right to search, but when obstruction is offered to the constable in so helping the Excise Inspector, the offender should be charged with obstructing, not the police constable, but the Excise Inspector himself inasmuch as there is no provision in the Excise Ordinance giving an Excise Inspector any right to give a police constable an order to search a house.

The power of an Excise Inspector to search1 a house for excisable articles is dependent upon his having made a record of the grounds of his belief as to the necessity of a search, as is provided by section 36 of the Ordinance. In a prosecution for obstructing him in searching a house, the fact of his having made such a rec