Company : Sol Infotech Pvt. Ltd. Website : www.courtkutchehry.com ASSAM MUNICIPAL ACT, 1956 15 of 1957 [12th September, 1957] CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 :- Preliminary 1. Short title, extent and commencement 2. Repeal and savings 3. Definitions CHAPTER 2 :- Constitution of municipalities 4 . Notification of intention to create, alter limits of, or abolish municipality 5 . Objection to the creation, alteration of limits, or abolition of municipality 6. Effect of including local area in municipality 7. Effect of excluding local area from municipality or withdrawing the whole area of municipality from the Act 8 . Power to exempt municipality from provisions of Act unsuited there to 9. Erection and maintenance of boundary marks CHAPTER 3 :- Municipal Boards Constitution of Muncipal Boards 10. Constitution of Municipal Board 11. Number of commissioners 12. Election of commissioners 13. Power to divide municipality into wards and to fix the number of commissioners of eacb ward 14. Qualifications of voters 15. Ineligibility for election 16. Proceedings to set aside an election 17. Procedure and powers of Judge holding enquiry 18. Setting aside of election 19. Scrutiny of votes and declaration in other cases 20. Disqualification of persons from being candidates who commit corrupt practices 21. Saving of acts done by a commissioner before his election is set aside 22. Fresh election when election set aside 23. Bar to interference by courts in election matters 24. Appointment of commissioners in newly created municipalities 25. Taking of oath 26. General election and terms of office of commissioners 27. Registration of Chairman, Vice-Chairman or commissioners 28. Removal of Chairman and Vice-Chairman 29. Removal of commissioners 30. Eligibility for election or re-election of commissioners removed from office 31. Filling op of casual vacancies of commissioners 32. Power to appoint commissioners if prescribed number not duly elected 33. Appointment or election of Chairman and Vice-chairman 34. Status and tenure of office of Chairman and Vice-Chairman 35. When Chairman and Vice-Chairman cease to hold office as such 36. When Government may appoint Chairman 37. Powers of Chairman 38. Delegation of duties and power by Chairman to Vice Chairman 39. Duties of Vice-Chairman 40. Grant of leave to Chairman or Vice-Chairman 41. Filling up of causual vacancies of Chairman and Vice-Chairman 42. Allowances of Chairman, Vice Chairman and commissioners 43. Ordinary and special meetings 43A. Annual budget 44. President of meeting 45. Manner of deciding questions 46. Quorum 47. Minutes of proceedings 48. Appointment of Committees 48A. Construction of Ward Committees 49. Formation of Joint-Committee 50. Appointment and pay of establishment 5 1 . P o w e r of Municipal Board to frame regulations for establishments The Board 52. Appointment of Health Officers, Sanitary Inspectors and Water Works Superintendents, etc. 53. Appointment of Executive Officers 54. Liability for loss, waste or misapplication of funds and property 55. Disqualification of commissioners having share or interest in contracts 56. Commissioners disqualified from voting on certain questions 57. Presumption and savings CHAPTER 4 :- MUNICIPAL FINANCE AND PROPERTY 58. Constitution and custody of Municipal Fund 59. Mnnicipal Board may raise loans and may form a sinking fund 60. Application of fund 61. Order for payment of money from the municipal fund 62. Municipal property 63. Power to purchase, lease and sell land 64. Execution of contracts 65. Transfer of certain public institutions to Boards 66. Transfer of private roads, etc., to Boards 67. Acquisition of land CHAPTER 5 :- Municipal Taxation Imposition of taxes 68. Taxes 68A. Taxes for providing public utility services 69. Taxes on Government holdings 70. Restriction regarding tax on holdings 71. Restriction regarding water-tax and lighting tax 72. Restriction regarding latrine-tax 73. Restriction regarding drainage tax 74. Special provision regarding tax on private markets 75. Restriction regarding fire brigade and anti-material fees 76. Board to determine valuation of holdings 77. Returns required for ascertaining annual value The assessor, in order to prepare the valuation list 78. Penalty for default in furnishing return 79. Determination of annual value of holding 8 0 . Determination of rate of tax on holding Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Board at a meeting 81. Preparation of Assessment Register 82. Power to assess consolidated tax for house and land on which it stands 83. Redaction of valuation, revision of valuation and assessment and revision of valuation list and Assessment Register 8 4 . Notice to be given to Chairman of all transfers of title of persons liable to payment of tax 84A. Prohibition of registration in certain cases 85. Revision of valuation list 86. Appointment of assessor and power of State Government to direct the appointment of assessor 87. Revision of assessment register 88. Effect of revision of assessment register 89. Method of assessment of duty on transfer property 90. Provisions applicable on the introduction of transfer duty 91. Poyer to make rules regarding assessment and collection of tranfer duty 92. Exemptions and remissions 93. Powers of assessor 94. Publication of notice of assessment 95. Application for review 96. Procedure for review 97. Limitation of time for application for review 98. Assessment to be questioned only under the Act 99. Tax not invalid for want of form 100. Recovery from occupier of tax due from non-resident owner 101. Recovery from owner of occupiers (ax in certain cases 102. Recovery by owner of occupiers tax paid by owner 103. Method of recovery by owner 104. Taxes when payable 105. Office hours for receipt of money 106. Bill and notice of demand 107. Issue of process of attachment 108. Attachment how to be made 109. Power of officer to break open door 110. Sale how to be conducted 111. Certain persons prohibited from purchasing at sales 112. Board to keep account of attachments and sales 113. Sale of property beyond limits of municipality 114. Attachment or sale not unlawful for want of form 115. Board may bring saits instead of distraining on failure of attachment 116. Liability of purchaser for vendors share of tax 117. Licence fees on carts, carriages and animals 118. Fees so fixed to continue until altered 119. . 120. Proportionate fee on carts, carriages, etc. 121. On payment of fee, Board to give a licence 122. Carts, carriages, etc. 123. Penalty 124. Board may compound with livery stable-keepers 125. List of licensed persons to be prepared 126. Power to inspect stables, etc. 127. Refund of fees in certain cases 127A. Licence fee on boats 128. Registration and numbering of dogs and cattle 129. Fees so fixed to continue until altered 130. Period of registratioo 131. Proportionate payment of fee 132. Transfer of ownership 133. Penalty 134. Seizure and sale of unlicensed cart, carriage or animal 135. Prohibition of double fees 136. Power of Board to establish toll bars, and levy tolls 137. Lease of toll-bar 1 3 8 . Procedure where two or more local authorities have contributed towards cost of bridge 139. Exemptions from payment of toll 140. Rates of tolls 141. Power to compound for tolls 142. Power of toll-collector or lessee in case of refusal to pay toll 143. Penalty for refusing to pay toll 144. Police officers to assist 145. Penalty for taking unauthorised tolls 146. Board to publish expenses of toll-bars 147. Functions in regard to pounds 148. Rents, tools and fees 149. Recovery of moneys due to the Board 150. Power to sell unclaimed holding for money due 151. Irrecoverable taxes, etc. CHAPTER 6 :- Power for sanitary and other purposes 152. Power to close a public road 153. Prohibition of nse of public road by a class of animals or vehicles 154. . 155. Power to require repair of public roads and drains and to declare such roads and drains 156. Permission to deposit movable property on, or to excavate or enclose, a public road or land 157. Hoards to be set up during repairs 158. Penalty for encroachment on public road, etc. 159. Removal of obstructions or encroachments in or OD public road 160. Procedure when person who erected obstruction cannot be found 161. Projection from houses to be removed 162. Power of District and Sab-divisional Magistrates to remove encroachment 163. Effect of order made under S 159, 160, 161 or 162 164. Power to regulate line of buildings on public roads and drains 165. Erection of platforms 166. Fallen building, etc. 167. Cutting of public road or passage of water, etc. 168. Board may require land holders to trim hedges, etc. 169. Penalty for disobeying requisition under S. 159, 161, 164, 166 or 168 170. Names ef public roads and numbers of houses 171. Prohibition of building without sanction 172. Special provision for cases where bye-laws have not been made under S. 302, Cl. (iv) 173. Non-observance of bye-laws 174. Powers of Board to sanction or refuse 175. Lapse of sanction 176. Penalty for building without or in contravention of sanction 177. Powers of Board in case of disobedience 178. Compensation for prohibition of erection or re-erection 179. Roofs and external walls not to be made of inflammable materials 180. Power to attach brackets for lamps 181. Buildings unfit for human habitation 182. Power to require cleansing or lime-washing of buildings 183. Fencing of building in a dangerous state 184. Board may require owners to pull down ruins 185. Penalty for disobeying requisition under S.183 or 184 186. Provision for drinking water, bathing places, etc. 187. Prohibition by Board of use of unwholesome water 188. Disobeying order under S.186 or 187 189. Power to require owners to clear noxious vegetation 190. Power to require owners to improve bad drainage 191. Power to require unwholesome tanks or private premises to be cleansed or drained 192. Wells, tanks etc., to be secured 193. Penalty for disobeying requisition under S. 189, 190, 191 or 192 194. Power of State Government to prohibit cultivation, use of manure, or irrigation injurious to health 195. Power to prohibit excavations 196. Public latrines and urinals 197. Permission to construct latrines and urinals which are to be properly enclosed 198. Power to require latrine or urinal to be constructed 199. No latrine, etc., te be constructed in certain circumstances 200. Inspection of latrines, etc. 201. Power to require owner or occupier to repair latrine, etc. 202. Penalty for not keeping latrine, etc., in proper order 203. Power to alter any latrine, etc., made contrary to orders 204. Power to demolish unauthorised drains leading into public sewer 205. Penalty of allowing water of any sewer, etc., to run on any publicroad 206. Power to require owner to drain land 207. Penalty for disobeying requisition under S. 201 or 206 208. Power to drain group or block of houses, etc, by a combined operation 209. Public health administration 210. Inspection by Public Health Department 211. Establishments for removal of sewage, offensive matter and rubbish 212. Sewerage scheme 213. Power to require removers of sewage to take out licence 214. Removal of sewage, offensive matter and rubbish 215. Penalty on occupier for not removing filth, etc. 216. Penalty for throwing offensive matter on public roads, etc. 217. Powers of servants of the Board 218. Compost 219. Nuisance 220. Inspection for removal of nuisance 221. Notice to remove nuisance 222. Complaint against nuisance 223. Power to prohibit use of unlicensed markets 224. Penalty for using unlicensed market 225. Power to close unlicensed places 226. Markets, slaughter-houses, etc., to be properly drained 227. Sale, exposing for sale, etc., of food 228. Factory, etc., not to be newly established without permission of the Board 229. Certain offensive and dangerous trades not to be established within the limits to be fixed by the Board without licence 230. Cinemas, dramatic performances, circuses, etc. 231. Cancellation, revocation, etc., of licences 232. Publication of order of refusal, suspension, etc., of licences 233. Appeals under Ss. 230 and 231 234. Power to order the use of slaughter houses and the carrying on of dangerous and offensive trade to be discontinued 235. Power to prohibit private kilos 236. Penalty for offences under Ss. 229, 230 and 235 237. Steps to be taken on outbreak of infectious diseases 238. Information to be given of infectious diseases 239. Removal to hospital of patients suffering from infectious diseases 240. Disinfection of building and articles 241. Penalty for letting infected house 242. Provision of places and appliances for disinfection 243. Act done by person suffering from certain diseases 244. Exposare of person suffering from infections disease 245. Power of entry for purposes of preventing spread of disease 246. Maintenance of conveyances by Board for certain purposes 247. Power to close market, tea stall, etc. 248. Power to close school 249. Eradication of mosquitoes and prevention of their breeding 250. Establishment and maintenance of fire-brigade 251. Powers of Magistrate, commissioners of Municipal Board, and other persons for suppression of fires 252. Power in respect of burial and burning places 253. Burial of paupers 254. Powers to cause corpses to be burnt or buried according to the religious tenets of the deceased 255. Power to license fuet shope at burning grounds 256. Powers over disorderly houses and prostitutes 257. Brothels 258. Token for dogs and disposal of mad and stray dogs 259. Schools 260. Dispensaries, hospitals, asylums, poor-houses and medical relief 261. Maternity bouses and child welfare centres, mid wires for maternity cases and health visitors. 1) 262. Vaccination 263. Registration of births and deaths 263A. Industrial undertaking CHAPTER 7 :- Water supply, lighting and drainage systems 264. Supply of drinking water 265. Satisfactory system of drainage 266. Sanction of scheme by State Government 267. Publication of scheme 268. Scheme to be carried out by municipalities 269. State Government may appoint an officer to execute the works 270. Power of Board to lay or carry wires, pipes, drains, or sewers, through private land subject to payment of compensation for damage sustained provided that no nuisance is created 271. Provisions as to wires, pipes, drains or sewers laid or carried above surface of ground 272. Previous notice to be given 273. Power to permit connections with main 274. Power to make or require connections in certain cases 275. Power to prescribe size of ferrules and to establish meters and the like 2 7 6 . Communication and connections to be made subject to inspection by and to the satisfaction of the Board 277. Connections may be made by Boards own agency 278. Power to enter premises 279. Presumption as to correctness of meter 280. Testing of meter 281. Penalty for fraud in respect of meter 282. Penalty for injuring meter 283. Estimate and. specificatipn of works to be sent 284. Owner to bear the cost of keeping works ip repair 285. Board to provide water-supply 286. Pressure at wbicb water must be kept 287. Provision for water-meter 288. House holder entitled to certain supply of water for domestic use 289. Power to provide water for latrines 290. Power to turn off water 291. Penalty for causing waste of water 292. Power to allow person outside the town to take water CHAPTER 8 :- Control 293. Control by Commissioner, etc. 294. Inspection of works and registers by commissioners 295. Inspector of Municipal Works 296. Power to suspend action under the Act 296A. Control over proceedings of Municipal Boards 297. Powers of State Government in case of default, and of Deputy Commissioner ip case of emergency etc. 298. Power to dissolve the Board in case of incompetence, defaults or absue of power 299. Consequences of dissolution 300. Disputes CHAPTER 9 :- Rules and Bye-laws Rules 301. Power of State Government to make rules 302. Power to make bye-laws 303. Additional powers to make bye-laws in hill municipalities 304. Confirmation of bye-laws 305. Publication of bye-laws 306. Power to make rules as to business and affairs CHAPTER 10 :- Procedure Municipal notice 307. How notice, etc., may be served 308. Reasonable time for compliance to be fixed 309. Service of notice on owner or occupier of land 310. Procedure when owners or occupiers are required by Board to execute works 311. Persons required to execute any work may prefer objection to the Board 312. Procedure If person objecting alleges that work will cost more than three hundred rupees 313. Chairman. etc., to make order after hearing objection 314. Order to be explained orally 315. Power of Board on failure of persons to execute work 316. Power to apportion expenses among owners and occupiers 317. Appointment among owners and occupiers 318. Occupier may recover cost of works executed at bis expence from owner 319. Power to enter upon possession of bouses so repaired 320. Sale of materials of bouses etc , pulled down 321. Appeals from orders of Board 322. Appeals from orders refusing licences 323. Board may direct prosecution for public nuisance etc. 324. No prosecution for an offence under this Act to be instituted without consent of Board 325. Police officer to report offences and arrest persons refusing to give name and residence 326. N o action to be brought against the Board or their officers until after one months notice of cause of action 327. Liability to pay expenses or fees may be contested in Civil Court 328. Dispute as to compensation payable by Board CHAPTER 11 :- Miscellaneous provisions 3 2 9 . Delegation of certain powers and functions of State Government 330. Survey of municipalities 331. Holder of licence to produce it when required 332. Suspension or revocation of licences, etc. 333. Penalty on officers, etc asking unauthorised fees CHAPTER 12 :- Small town 334. Constitution of notified area 335. Constitution of Town Committee 336. Power of State Government to impose taxation and regulate expenditure of proceeds thereof and to extend provisions of the Act to notifiedareas 337. Application of funds of areas ceasing to be notified SCHEDULE 1 :- SCHEDULE SCHEDULE 2 :- Business and procedure at first meetings SCHEDULE 3 :- Form of Nomination ASSAM MUNICIPAL ACT, 1956 15 of 1957 [12th September, 1957] Whereas it is expedient to make better provision for the organisation and administration of municipalities in Assam;It is hereby enacted in the Seventh Year of the Republic of India as followd :- CHAPTER 1 Preliminary 1. Short title, extent and commencement :- (1) This Act may be called the Assam Municipal Act, 1956. 2. Repeal and savings :- On and from the date on which this Act comes into force, the Assam Municipal Act, 1923 (Act I of 1923), shall be repealed : 3. Definitions :- In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context (1) "Board" means a Municipal Board ; (1A) "Boat" means a steamer or vessel propelled by steam, motor, electrical or other mechanical power including flats and tugs, country boat, row boat, skiff or other like craft ; (2) "Building" means a house, but, shed or other roofed structure, for whatsoever purpose and whatsoever material constructed, and every part thereof, but shall not include a tent, or other merely temporary shelter including any kind of temporary shed erected on ceremonial or festive occasions ; (3) "Carriage" means any wheeled vehicle with springs or other appliances acting as springs of a kind ordinarily used for conveyance of human beings and includes jin-rickshaws, cycle- rickshaws, bicycles and tricycles but does not include perambulators and in particular does not include any motor vehicle as defined in the Assam Motor Vehicles Taxation Act, 1936 (Act I of 1936) ; (4) "Cart" means any cart, hackney, or wheeled vehicle with or without springs, which is not a carriage as defined in sub-S (3) ; (5) "the commissioners" means the persons for the time being appointed or elected to conduct the affairs of any municipality under this Act; (6) "Compost manure" means the produce prepared from offensive matter, rubbish and sewage by subjecting them to the process of compost making in the manner prescribed by rules ; (7) "Conservancy" means the removal and disposal of sewage, offensive matter and rubbish ; (8) "Cubical extent" when used for reference to the measurement of a building, means the space contained with the external surface of its walls and roofs and the upper surface of the floor of its lowest or only storey ; (8A) "Cattle" shall mean and include oxen, bulls, cows, goats, sheep, horses, buffaloes, asses, mules and donkeys excluding those covered by S. 68 (1) (g) (10) "Drain" includes a sewer, a house's drain, a drain of any other description, a tunnel, a culvert, a ditch, a channel and any other device for carrying off sullage, sewage, offensive matter, polluted water, rain water or sub-soil warer ; (11) "Financial year" means the year commencing on the first day of April, or on such other date as the State Government may by notification appoint ; (12) "Food", notwithstanding anything contained in the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 (Act 37 of 1954), includes every article used for food or drink by man other than drugs or water, and any article which ordinarily enters into or is used in the composition or preparation of human food, and also includes confectionary, flavouring and colouring matter and spices and condiments ; (13) "Half-year" means a half year commencing on the first day of April or the first day of October, or on such other dates as the State Government may by notification appoint ; (15) Any plot of land having clear boundaries and lying entirely vacant, if fit for building purposes or if yielding any income, shall, when not appurtenant to any buildings and not used for any agricultural purposes, be regarded as a 'holding' ; (16) "House" means any hut, shop, warehouse, workshop, a masonry or framed building ; (17) "House-gully" means a passage or strip of land constructed, set apart, or utilised, for the purposes of serving as a drain or affording access to a latrine, urinal, cess-pool or other receptacle for filthy or polluted matter by municipal servants or by persons employed in the cleansing thereof or in the removal of such matter therefrom, and includes the air space above such passage or land ; (18) "Hut" means any building, which is constructed principally of wood, mud, leaves, grass or thatch and includes any temporary structure of whatever size, or any small building of whatever material made ; (19) "Infectious or contagious disease" means cholera, plague, small-pox, kala-azar, tuberculosis, diptheria and typhoid or enteric fever or such other dangerous disease as the State Government may notify in this behalf ; (20) "Inhabitant" used with reference to a local area means any person ordinarily residing or carrying on business or owning or occupying immovable property therein ; (21) "Joint family" means a family of which the members live together, have a common mess and are descendants from a common ancestor and shall include wives or husbands, as the case may be, of its members but shall exclude married daughter and their children ; (22) "Land" includes (besides land) benefits arising out of land, houses and things attached to the earth, or permanently fastened to anything attached to the earth and also land covered by water ; (23) "Local authority" includes Local Boards, Municipal Boards, Town Committees and Panchayats ; (24) "Lodging house" means a house in which visitors or other persons are lodged for hire for a night or more and where there is community eating or sleeping accommodation ; (25) "Magistrate" includes the District Magistrate, the Sub- divisional Magistrate and any Magistrate to whom either such Magistrate has made over any duties under this Act ; (26) "Market" means any place where persons assemble for the sale of articles intended for food or drink or of livestock or other merchandise ; (27) "Municipal Board" means the body of persons for the time being elected or appointed to conduct the affairs of any municipality under this Act ; (28) "Municipal market" means a market belonging to or maintained by the Board ; (29) "Municipality" means any local area declared by or under this Act to be a municipality ; (30) "Nuisance" includes any act, omission, place or thing which causes or is likely to cause injury, danger, annoyance or offence to the sense of sight, smelling or hearing or which is or may be dangerous to life or injurious to health or property ; (31) "Occupier" means the person for the time being in actual occupation of, or paying, or liable to pay to the owner, the rent or any portion of the rent of the land or building in respect of which the word is used, and includes a person occupy, ing a holding or part of a holding rent free, and an owner living in his own house ; (32) "Offensive matter" means dirt, dung, kitchen and stable refuse, putrid or putrefying substances, and filth of any kind not included in the term "sewage" ; (34) "Platform" as used in S. 165 means any structure which is placed on, or covers, or projects over, any public road or any open drain, sewer or aqueduct ; (35) "Prescribed" means prescribed by rules under this Act ; (37) "Private road" means any street, road, square, court, alley or passage which is not a public road and includes a pathway made by the owner of premises on his own land to secure access to or the convenient use of such premises ; (40) "Rubbish" means broken brick, mortar, broken glass, or refuse of any kind whatsoever not included in the term "offensive matter" ; (41) "Salaried servant of Government" means a wholetime servant of the Government who receives his salary direct from any Government and includes a manager of an estate under the Court o f Wards and an officer whose services have been lent by any Government to a local authority ; but does not include a retired servant of Government in receipt of a pension ; (42) "Sewage" means night soil and other contents of latrines, urinals, cess-pools and drains, and includes polluted water from sinks, bath-rooms, stables, cattle-sheds and other like places and also discharges from manufactories of all kinds ; (43) 'Water works" includes all tanks, streams, cisterns, springs pumps, wells, reservoirs, aqueducts, sluices, mams, pipes, hydrants, stand-pipes, conduits, and all engines, machinery, lands, buildings and things for supplying or used for supplying water, (44) "Committee" means a Committee constituted under Art. 243-S of the Constitution ; (45) "Nagar Panchayat or Town Committee" means a local self governing body constituted for a transitional area as defined in Art. 243-Q (2) of the Constitution ; (46) "Director" means the Director of Municipal Administration appointed by the Government of Assam for performing the functions and exercising powers provided in this Act ; (47) "State Finance Commission" means the Finance Commission constituted under Art. 243-1 of the Constitution of India 5 (48) "State Election Commission" means the Election Commission constituted by the Government of Assam and as referred to in Art. 243 ZA of the Constitution of India. CHAPTER 2 Constitution of municipalities 4. Notification of intention to create, alter limits of, or abolish municipality :- (2) Every notification published under sub-S. (1) shall'define the limits of the local area to which it relates. (3) A copy, both in English and the Vernacular of the district, of every notification issued under sub-S. (1) shall be posted up in a conspicuous place in the office of the Municipal Board or, in the case of a notification under Cl. (a) of that sub-section, in the office of the District Magistrate and in such other public place, as the Board or the District Magistrate, as the case may be, may direct; and a public proclamation shall be made by beat of drum through the municipality or local area concerned that such copy has been so posted up, and is open to inspection in such office. 5. Objection to the creation, alteration of limits, or abolition of municipality :- (1) Any inhabitant of any part of a local area defined in a notification published under S. 4 or any rate-prayer of the municipality, may, if he objects to anything therein contained, submit his objection in writing through the Deputy Commissioner to the State Government within fortytwo days from the date of the publication, and the State Government shall take his objection into consideration. 6. Effect of including local area in municipality :- When a local area is included in a municipality by a notification published under S. S, sub-S. (2), all the provisions of this Act and all rules and bye-laws made, orders, directions and notices issued and powers conferred thereunder and in force throughout the municipality at the time when the local area is so included, shall apply thereto unless the State Government, by notification otherwise direct. 7. Effect of excluding local area from municipality or withdrawing the whole area of municipality from the Act :- (2) When the whole area comprised in any municipality is withdrawn from the operation of this Act by a notification published under S. 5, sub-. (2), this Act and all rules and bye-laws made, orders, directions and notices issued and powers conferred thereunder, shall cease to apply there to ; and the balance of the municipal fund and all other property at the time of the issue of the notification vested in the Board shall be transferred to the State Government. 8. Power to exempt municipality from provisions of Act unsuited there to :- (1) Should the circumstances of any municipality be such that any of the provisions of this Act are unsuited thereto, the State Government may, by notification, either of their own motion after consultation with the Board or on the recommendation of the Board at a meeting specially convened for the purpose, exempt the municipality or any part of it from the operation of those provisions ; and thereupon the said provisions shall not apply to the municipality until applied thereto by notification after consultation with the Board. (2) While such exception as aforesaid remains in force, the State Government may make rules for the guidance of the Board and public officers in respect of the matters expected from the operation of the said provisions. 9. Erection and maintenance of boundary marks :- Every Municipal Board already existing and every municipality constituted under this Act and every municipality whose local limits are altered, shall cause to be erected and set up and thereafter maintain substantial boundary marks defining the limits or the altered limits of the area subject to its authority, as set out in any notification published under this Act. CHAPTER 3 Municipal Boards Constitution of Muncipal Boards 10. Constitution of Municipal Board :- There shall be established for each municipality, a body of commissioners designated as the Municipal Board having authority over the municipality. Such a Board shall be a body corporate by the name of the Municipal Board of.............having perpetual succession and a common seal, and by that name shall sue and be sued. 11. Number of commissioners :- (2) The State Government may appoint persons having special knowledge or experience in municipal administration as members who shall have the right to attend and speak at all meetings of the Board but stall have no right to vote. Such persons shall not be deemed to be commissioners for the purpose of this Act. (4) The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes specified under Arts. 341 and 342 of the Constitution of India and the socially and educationally Backward Classes as notified from time to time by the State Government shall be deemed to be the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and the socially and educationally Backward Classes respectively within the meaning of this Act. 12. Election of commissioners :- The election of commissioners shall be conducted in accordance with rules prescribed under this Act. 13. Power to divide municipality into wards and to fix the number of commissioners of eacb ward :- The State Government may, in case of new municipalities, of its own motion and in case of municipalities already in existence at the time the notification is made after consideration of the views of the Board at a meeting, by notification, divide a municipality into wards for the purpose of the election of commissioners and determine the number of commissioners to be elected from each such ward. 14. Qualifications of voters :- Every person of the full age of twenty one years being a citizen of India, who has been for a period of not less than twelve months immediately before the 1st January of the year for which the municipal electoral roll is being prepared, hereinafter referred to as "the prescribed date", resident within the limits of a municipality and occupies a holding assessed to tax under S. 68 of the Act or an inhabitant thereof, and who (i) has paid any tax for at least one quarter for the year preceding the prescribed date to be paid on or before the last date of claims for insertion of a name in the electoral roll ; or (ii) is a member of joint family of which any member is voter under item (i) ; or (iii) being a graduate of any University, or having passed the Intermediate or Matriculation Examinations of the Gauhati, or any other University, or the corresponding standard of the same of any other University, or Middle English or Middle Vernacular or an equivalent examination or senior or junior Madrassa Examination under the old reformed scheme, or the Sanskrit Title Examination of the Calcutta/Assam Sanskrit Association or having read up to Class VII of a High School or being a registered medical practitioner under the Assam 'Medical Act, 1916 (Act I of 1916) or being an Advocate or holding a certificate authorising a person to practise as a Pleader or as a Mukhtar or as a revenue agent, occupies a holding or part of a holding, in respect of which there has been paid, during the twelve months aforesaid in respect of any rates an aggregate amount of not less than one rupee ; or 15. Ineligibility for election :- No person shall be eligible for election as commissioner of a Municipal Board if such person (i) is not entitled to vote at the election of commissioners of the Municipal Board ; or (ii) has been adjudged by a competent court to be of unsound mind ; or (iii) is an uncertificated bankrupt or an undischarged insolvent ; or (iv) has during the four years immediately preceding the date of the election been convicted by a Criminal Court of an offence involving a sentence of transportation or imprisonment for an offence involving moral turpitude, or of an offence under Chapter IX-A of the Indian Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860), or served any portion of a sentence on such conviction, or has been ordered by a Criminal Court to furnish security for good behaviour under the Code of Criminal Procedure (Act V of 1898) unless such conviction or order has been set aside, or such offences pardoned by competent authority ; or (v) has been declared by notification to be disqualified for employment in the public service ; or (vi) has, during the four years immediately preceding the date of election, been debarred from practising as a legal practitioner by order of any competent.authority ; or (vii) is a salaried servant of Government or is an employee of any Local Authority ; or (viii) is in arrear for more than three months on the date of submission of nomination paper of any dues to the municipality including in respect of the holding of which he is a resident or occupant ; or 16. Proceedings to set aside an election :- If the validity of an election of a commissioner is brought in question by an unsuccessful candidate or person qualified to vote at the election to which such question refers, such person may, at any time within twenty-one days after the date of the declaration of the result of the election file a petition in the prescribed manner before the District Judge of the district within which the election has been or should have been held and in the case of the Shillong Municipality to the District Judge, Lower Assam District, and shall at the same time deposit one hundred rupees in court as security for the costs likely to be incurred : Provided that the Deputy Commissioner or the Sub-divisional Officer, as the case may be, may be authorised by the State Government to receive election petitions on behalf the District Judge for transmission to him : provided further that an appeal in the manner prescribed shall lie to the District Judge against such acceptance or refusal of nomination. 17. Procedure and powers of Judge holding enquiry :- (1) Where a petition has been filed under S. 16, the District Judge or any judicial officer subordinate to him and not below the rank of a Subordinate Judge other than an officer exercising the powers of a Subordinate Judge ex officio (hereinafter referred to in this Chapter as the Judge) to whom the District Judge may transfer the petition, may, after holding such inquiry as he deems necessary, in accordance with the prescribed procedure and subject to the provisions of Ss. 18 an 19, pass an order confirming or amending the declared result of the election or setting the election aside. (2) For the purposes of the said inquiry the Judge may summon and enforce the attendance of witnesses and compel them to produce documents or articles in their possession and to give evidence as if he were a Civil Court, and may also direct by whom the whole or any part of the costs of such inquiry shall be paid and such costs shall be recoverable as if they had been awarded in a suit under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (Act V of 1908). (3) The Judge may, at any stage of the proceedings, require the petititioner to deposit in Court a further sum as the costs incurred or likely to be incurred by any respondent, or to give security, or further security for the payment of the same, and if, within the time fixed by him, or within such further time as he may allow, such costs are not deposited or such security is not furnished, as the case may be, may dismiss the petition. (4) An appeal shall lie to the District Judge from any decision or order of a Subordinate Judge, and a decision or order of the District Judge either, when he has himself made the enquiry or an appeal, shall be final. 18. Setting aside of election :- 19. Scrutiny of votes and declaration in other cases :- If, in any case to which S. 18 does not apply, the validity of an election is in dispute between two or more candidates the Judge shall, after scrutiny and computation of the votes recorded in favour of each such candidate, declare the candidate who is found to have the greatest number of valid votes in his favour to have been duly elected : Provided that for the purpose of such computation no vote shall-be reckoned as valid if the Judge finds that any corrupt practice was committed by any person, known or Unknown, in giving or obtaining it. 20. Disqualification of persons from being candidates who commit corrupt practices :- If the Judge sets aside an election under S. 18 he may, if he thinks fit, declare any person by whom a corrupt practice has in his opinion been committed to be disqualified from being a candidate for election in that or any other municipality for a period not exceeding five years, froth the date of decision, and the Judge's decision shall be final. 21. Saving of acts done by a commissioner before his election is set aside :- Where a candidate, who has been elected to be a commissioner, is declared by the Judge not to have been duly elected, acts done by him in execution of the office before the time when the decision is communicated to the Board shall not be invalidated by reason of that declaration. 22. Fresh election when election set aside :- If an election is set aside by the Judge, a date shall forthwith be fixed and the necessary steps taken for holding a fresh election for filling up the vacancy, as though it had been a casual vacancy. 23. Bar to interference by courts in election matters :- No election of a commissioner shall be called in question in any Court except under the procedure 24. Appointment of commissioners in newly created municipalities :- Notwithstanding anything in the foregoing sections of this Chapter, the State Government, while constituting any new Municipality after the passing of this Act, may appoint all the commissioners of that municipality until the genera! election is held. 25. Taking of oath :- (1) Every person who is elected to be commissioner of the Board or who becomes commissioner of the Board by virtue of office, shall, before taking his seat at a meeting of the Board first attended make an oath or affirmation of his allegience to the Union of India in the following form, namely : "I, A. B., having been elected /ex- officio commissioner of this Board do swear in the name of God or solemnly affirm that I will bear true faith and allegience to the Constitution of India as by law established, and will faithfully discharge the duty upon which I am about to enter." (2) Any person having been elected a commissioner who fails to make within three months from the date of the first meeting of the Board the oath or affirmation laid down in sub-S. (1), shall cease to hold his office and his seat shall be deemed to have become vacant. 26. General election and terms of office of commissioners :- (1) Every (1)municipality unless sooner dissolved under S. 298, shall continue for five years from the date of first meeting of newly constituted Board after a general election at which quorum is present. (2) The Slate Election Commission shall cause the results of the general election to be published in the official Gazette and the date of official Gazette containing the publication shall be deemed to be the date of completion of the general election. (4) A municipality constituted upon the dissolution of a municipality before the expiration of its duration shall contitnue only for the remainder of the period for which the dissolved municipality would have continued under sub-S. (1) had it not been so dissolved. (5) If the term of the office of the commissioner expires and for any reason the election cannot be held, the Board shall be deemed to have been dissolved under S. 298 with effect from the date of expiry of the term and thereafter provisions of S. 299 shall not apply. 27. Registration of Chairman, Vice-Chairman or commissioners :- (1)[Deleted], (2) An elected Chairman may resign by laying notice in writing of his intention to do so before the Board at a meeting with intimation to the District Magistrate and the Commissioner of Division. The Chairman shall cease to hold office on his laying such notice. (3) A Vice-Chairman or a commissioner may resign by writing under his hand addressed to the Chairman and thereupon the Vice- Chairman or the commissioner, as the case may be, shall be deemed to have vacated the office as such. The Chairman shall forthwith inform the Deputy Commissioner or the Sub-divisional Officer, as the case may be, of the resignation and also inform the next meeting of the Municipal Board or Town Committee of such fact. (4) [Deleted]. 28. Removal of Chairman and Vice-Chairman :- (1) [Deleted]. (2) An elected Chairman or Vice-Chairman may be removed from his office by a resolution of the Board in favour of which not less than half of the whole number of commissioners shall have given their votes at a meeting specially convened for the purpose. (3) The State Government, after giving an opportunity to explain, may remove the Chairman or Vice-Chairman from his office if he is persistently omting or refusing to carry out or disobeying the provisions of this Act and, the rules thereunder or any lawful orders issued thereunder or he Becomes incapable of so acting or is declared insolvent or is convicted by a Criminal Court for. any offence involving moral turpitude. 29. Removal of commissioners :- (1) The State Government may remove any elected commissioner on the ground of his misconduct in the discharge of his duties if the removal is recommended by a resolution of the Board passed at a special meeting called for the purpose and supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds of the whole number of commissioners of the municipality, 30. Eligibility for election or re-election of commissioners removed from office :- No commissioner of a Board who has been removed from his office under sub-S. (1) or under Cl. (b), (c), (d), (e), (f) or (g) of sub-S (2) or under sub-S. (3) of S. 29 shall be eligible for election or re- election as a commissioner without the consent of the State Government. 31. Filling op of casual vacancies of commissioners :- If any commissioner, appointed or elected, shall be unable to enter upon or complete his term of office, the vacancy shall be filled by appointment or election, as the case may be, for the remainder of the term. 32. Power to appoint commissioners if prescribed number not duly elected :- If the electorate in any municipality fails within the prescribed time to elect the number of commissioners to constitute the Board in accordance with the provision of S.11, the election to elect the commissioners shall be held again on any date and time to be decided by the State Election Commission. 33. Appointment or election of Chairman and Vice-chairman :- (3) The said commissioners shall at the said meeting or at a subsequent meeting elect one of their elected commissioner to be the Vice-Chairman. 34. Status and tenure of office of Chairman and Vice- Chairman :- (1)Except as otherwise provided in this Act, every Chairman and every Vice-Chairman shall hold office from the date of his election of the Chairman of the Board after the next general election including the former but excluding the latter of these dates and shall be eligible for re-election. (2) Except as otherwise provided in this Act, every Chairman and every Vice-Chairman whether appointed or elected shall hold office from the date of his appointment or election to the date of the election or appointment of the Chairman of the Board after the next general election, including the former but excluding the latter of these dates, and shall be eligible for re-appointment or re-election. 35. When Chairman and Vice-Chairman cease to hold office as such :- When a commissioner who holds the office of Chairman or Vice- Chairman ceases for any reason whatsoever to be a commissioner, he shall at the same time cease to hold the office of Chairman or Vice-Chairman 36. When Government may appoint Chairman :- Whenever for any cause the offices of both the Chairman and the Vice-Chairman are vacant in any Board, the State Government shall appoint any one from amongst the commissioners as the Chairman to hold office as such temporarily till a Chairman is elected. 37. Powers of Chairman :- 38. Delegation of duties and power by Chairman to Vice Chairman :- 39. Duties of Vice-Chairman :- The Vice-Chairman shall (a) during a vacancy in the office of the Chairman or temporary absence of the Chairman perform any of the duties and when occasion arises, exercise any of the powers of the Chairman ; and (b) at any time, perform any duty and exercise when occasion arises, any power delegated to him under S 38. 40. Grant of leave to Chairman or Vice-Chairman :- The Board at a meeting may grant leave of absence to its Chairman or Vice-Chairman for any period not exceeding three months in any one year : Provided that if a Chairman or Vice-Chairman who has been granted leave for the maximum period of three months overstays his leave, he shall be deemed to have vacated his office and the acting Chairman or Vice-Chairman, as the case may be, shall continue to act for him till the vacancy has been filled up by appointment or by a fresh election at the next meeting of the Board. 41. Filling up of causual vacancies of Chairman and Vice- Chairman :- (2) In case of vacancy in the office of the Chairman, the Vice- Chairman ; and in the case of vacancy in the office of the Vice- Chairman, the Chairman shall call a meeting so as to complete the election within 45 days of the occurrence of the vacancy. If the Chairman or the Vice-Chairman, as the case may be, fails to call the meeting, the Deputy Commissioner or the Sub-divisional Officer, as the case may be, shall call the meeting. (3) In case of such a meeting for the election of the Chairman, the Vice-Chairman shall preside unless be is himself a candidate for election as Chairman or for other reasons intimates to the Deputy Commissioner or the Sub-divisional Officer, as the case may be, in writing his inability to preside. In such an event any commissioner who is not a candidate for office of the Chairman as may be nominated in the form prescribed in the Third Schedule by the Deputy Commissioner or the Sub-divisional Officer, as the case may be, shall preside. (4) In case of such a meeting called for the election of the Vice- Chairman the Chairman shall preside unless there is vacancy in the office of the Chairman in which case any commissioner who is not a candidate for the office of the Vice-Chairman as may be nominated by the Deputy Commissioner or Sub-divisional Officer, as the case may be, shall preside. 42. Allowances of Chairman, Vice Chairman and commissioners :- (2) No commissioner shall receive or be paid from the municipal fund, any salary or remuneration for services rendered by him in any capacity whatsovever but may be allowed travelling allowance when admissible. Conduct of business 43. Ordinary and special meetings :- (1) The commissioners shall meet for the transaction of business at their office, at least once in every month, and as often as a meeting shall be called by the Chairman or, in his absence, by the Vice-Chairman If there be no business to be laid before the commissioners at any monthly meeting, the Chairman shall instead of calling the meeting, give notice of the fact to each commissioner three days before the date which is appointed for the monthly meeting. (2) The Chairman, or in his absence, the Vice-Chairman, may call a special meeting whenever he thinks fit and shall call one on a requisitionsigned by not less than three of the commissioners (3) If the Chairman or the Vice-Chairman fails to call a special meeting to meet within twenty days after any such requisition has been made, the meeting may be called by the persons who signed the requisition. 43A. Annual budget :- A Municipal Board shall pass the Annual Budget estimates for the next financial year before the end of the preceding financial year : Provided that when the failure to pass the budget as aforesaid is due to causes beyond the control of a Municipal Board or Town Committee, the Director of Municipal Administration may, on application by the Municipal Board or Town Committee, give such extension of time as he may deem necessary to pass the budget ; Provided further that the Annual Budget of the Board passed in the meeting of the Board shall be approved by the Director of Municipal Administration within 31st March of the preceding year, 44. President of meeting :- 45. Manner of deciding questions :- Save as otherwise provided in or under this Act, (a) all questions at a meeting of the Board shall be determined by a majority of votes of the commissioners present ; (b) in the case of equality of votes, on any question other than the election of the Chairman, or the Vice-Chairman, the President, if there is one, shall have a second or casting vote ; Explanation. To decide the issue by "drawal of lot" the President shall draw lots amongst them by writing the names of the candidates in two sheets of paper, rolling up the paper* into balls and getting one of the balls picked up by some disinterested person, who has not seen the writing of the names in the papers, from a receptacle where both the papers (rolled up into balls) have been placed. 46. Quorum :- (1) No business shall be transacted at any meeting of the Board unless such meeting has been called by the Chairman or Vice- Chairman, or under sub-S. (3) of S. 43, by persons signing a requisition, nor unless a quorum shall be present. (4) If at any meeting the prescribed quorum is not present, the meeting shall stand adjourned to some future day to be appointed by the President and three days' notice of such adjourned meeting shall be given. (5) The commissioners present at such adjourned meeting for transaction of business other than those mentioned in sub-S. (2) shall form a quorum whatever their number may be. 47. Minutes of proceedings :- (1) Minutes of the proceedings of all meetings of the Board shall be entered in a book to be kept for the purpose, and shall be signed by the President of the meeting and shall be published in such manner as may be prescribed and shall, at all reasonable times and without charge, be open to the inspection of the tax payers. (2) A copy of the minutes of the proceedings of all meetings of the Board shall forthwith be forwarded by the Board to the Deputy Commissioner and the Commissioner of Division and another copy submitted to the State Government. (3) The minutes shall be laid before the next meeting of the Board for confirmation and shall also be signed at such meeting by the President if the same has been correctly entered. 48. Appointment of Committees :- (1) The Board at a meeting may appoint, from time to time, committees to assist it in the discharge of any specific duties or class of duties devolving upon it under this Act, within the whole or any portion of the municipality, and may delegate to any such committee all or any of its powers which may be necessary for the purpose of rendering such assistance, or withdraw all or any of such powers. (2) Each Committee shall consist of commissioners and, when necessary, of such resident with special qualifications whom the Board at a meeting desire to appoint ; in such a case the number of commissioners shall not be less than two-thirds of the whole number of the members of of the Committee. (3) The commissioners of such committees shall be liable to all the obligations imposed by this Act on the commissioners of the Board in respect of such powers as may be delegated to them. (4) All the proceedings of any such committee shall be subject to confirmation by the Board at a meeting. (5) All questions connected with the removal or resignation of commissioners of committees shall be settled by the Board at a meeting. 48A. Construction of Ward Committees :- (1) There shall be constituted ward committees consisting of one or more wards but not more than four within the territorial area of municipality having a population of 3 (three) lakhs or more. (2) The territorial area of a Ward Committee in the municipality shall be contiguous to each other. The area of such Ward Committee shall be notified by the State "Government within three months from the date of receipt of proposal in this regard from concerned Municipal Board. (3) The total number of members of each such Ward Committee shall not be more than eight consisting of four ward commissioners and four other representing interest groups, leading citizens of the concerned ward who may be nominated by the Deputy Commissioner of the District in which the municipality is located. (4) The Chairman of the Ward Committee shall be elected from amongst the elected members of the Ward Committee. (5) The Ward Committee will mainly look after the needs of the residents in more intimate manner making it unnecessary for the residents to go to the municipality. (6) The decision of the Ward Committee with regard to election of schemes of development in the area shall be binding on the part of the municipality while each schemes are taken up for execution by the Board subject to budget provision. (7) The tenure of Ward Committee shall be co-terminus with the tenure of the Municipal Board and on dissolution of the Municipal Board the Ward Committee shall automatically stand dissolved. 49. Formation of Joint-Committee :- (1) Any Municipal Board may join with any other local authority or with any cantonment authority, or with more than one such local authority or cantonment authority, in constituting out of their respective bodies a joint-committee, consisting of not more than two commissioners/members from each of such bodies, for any purpose in which they are jointly interested, and in delegating to any such joint-committee any power which might be exercised and which can be lawfully delegated by either or any of that local authority or cantonment authorities concerned. (2) Such joint-committee may, from time to time, make rules as to the proceedings of any such joint-committee and as to the conduct of correspondence relating to the purpose for which such joint- committee is constituted. 50. Appointment and pay of establishment :- (2) Right of appeal. Consequent on disciplinary action against him every employee of a Municipal Board shall have the right of appeal to the Board from the orders of the Chairman or Vice-Chairman ; and in the case of orders involving dismissal or removal of officers not liable to be so dismissed or removed by the Chairman or Vice- Chairman, an appeal to the Government in the Local Self Government Department may be filled as may be prescribed by rules. (3) Gratuity or pension. A Municipal Board may, at a meeting from time to time, make rules for gratuities or pension to be granted and paid out of its fund to its establishment subject to the approval of the State Government. 51. Power of Municipal Board to frame regulations for establishments The Board :- at a meeting specially convened for the purpose, by a resolution in favour of which not less than two-thirds of the commissioners present at such meeting shall have voted, may make regulations consistent with this Act and with any rules made thereunder, in respect of officers and employees on its staff for (a) fixing the amount and nature of the security to be furnished ; (b) regulating the grant of leave, leave allowances, acting allowances and travelling and other allowances ; and 52. Appointment of Health Officers, Sanitary Inspectors and Water Works Superintendents, etc. :- Notwithstanding anything contained in S. 50, the State Government may require the Board after considering any cause that it may show to the contrary (a) to appoint such Health Officers, Sanitary Inspectors, other public health establishments and Water-Works Superintendents as it may consider necessary on such terms as it may think fit ; or (b) to employ such officers of Government as Health Officers, Sanitary Inspectors and Water Works Superintendents as it may consider necessary. 53. Appointment of Executive Officers :- (1) A Municipal Board may appoint an Executive Officer with the approval of the State Government. The State Government may, if it finds that any particular Board should have an Executive Officer and the said Board does not make such an appointment, appoint any person as such officer in respect of that particular Board. In either case the salary of the office including allowances, etc., and other charges shall be charged on the Municipal Fund unless the State Government agree to bear the same or any portion thereof. (2) The State Government shall make rules regarding the appointment, salaries, conditions of service, powers, duties and functions of the Executive Officers and other relevant matters connected therewith and also providing that no disciplinary action shall be taken against the Executive Officer, except with the approval of the State Government. 54. Liability for loss, waste or misapplication of funds and property :- (1) Every Chairman, Vice-Chairman, commissioner, officer or servant of a Municipal Board, including a Government servant whose services are lent to the Board, shall be liable for the loss, waste, or misapplication of any money or other property owned by or vested in the Municipal Board, if such loss, waste or misapplication is a direct consequence of any illegal act, omission, neglect or misconduct on his part ; and a suit for compensation may be instituted against him in any Court of competent jurisdiction by the Board. (2) Every such suit shall be instituted within one year after the date on which cause of action arose. 55. Disqualification of commissioners having share or interest in contracts :- No commissioner of a Board or a Committee shall have without the written permission of the State Government, directly or indirectly, any share or interest in any contract, lease, sale or purchase of land or any agreement for the same of any kind whatsoever to which the Board is a party, or shall hold any office of profit under it, and if any commissioner shall have such share or interest or shall hold such office he shall thereby become disqualified to continue in office as a commissioner, and shall be liable to be a fine not exceeding one hundred rupees : 56. Commissioners disqualified from voting on certain questions :- N o commissioner of a Board or a Committee shall vote on any matter affecting his own conduct or pecuniary interest, or on any question which regards exclusively the assessment of himself, or the valuation of any property in respect of which he is directly or indirectly in any way interested, or of any property of or for which he is a manager or agent, for his liability to any tax. Validity of acts and proceedings 57. Presumption and savings :- (1) No disqualification, or defect in the election or appointment of a person acting as a commissioner of a Board or a Committee or a Joint-Committee appointed under this Act or as the President of a meeting of the Board or of such committee or joint-committee, shall be deemed to vitiate any act or proceeding of the Board or of the committee or the joint-committee, if the majority of the persons at the time of the act being done or the proceeding being taken were qualified and duly elected or appointed commissioners of the Board or the committee or the joint-committee (2) Until the contrary is proved, any document or minutes which purport to be the record of the proceedings of the Board or committee or joint-committee shall, if substantially made and signed in the manner prescribed for the making and signing of the record of such proceedings, be deemed to be a correct record of the proceedings of a duly convened meeting held by a duly constituted Municipal Board or committee or joint-committee, whereof all the commissioners were duly qualified. (3) The powers of the Board or of any committee or joint- committee may be exercised notwithstanding any vacancy in their number. (4) Accidental omission to serve notice of a meeting on any commissioner of a Board or committee or joint-committee shall not affect the validity of a meeting of the Boad on of the committee or joint-committee. CHAPTER 4 MUNICIPAL FINANCE AND PROPERTY 58. Constitution and custody of Municipal Fund :- (1) There shall be formed, for each Municipal Board a fund to be called the "Municipal Fund". (3) The Municipal Fund shall be vested in the Board. 59. Mnnicipal Board may raise loans and may form a sinking fund :- It shall be lawful for a Municipal Board, subject to the provisions of any law relating to the raising of loans by local authorities for the time being in force, from time to time, to raise loans for the purposes of carrying out any of the provisions of this Act and to form a sinking fund. 60. Application of fund :- (3) The Board may do all things not being inconsistent with this Act, which may be necessary to carry out the purposes of sub-S. (2). 61. Order for payment of money from the municipal fund :- Unless otherwise authorised by the State Government, all orders for the payment of money from the municipal fund if for a sum not above five hundred rupees shall be signed by the Chairman or Vice- Chairman, and all orders for larger sums, by both of the said officers or by one of the said officers and another commissioner of the Board. No such order shall be issued otherwise than for the payment of money of which the expenditure has been authorised, subject to rule, by the Board at a meeting. 62. Municipal property :- 63. Power to purchase, lease and sell land :- (1) A Board may, at a meeting, decide to purchase or take on lease or by gift any land for the purposes of this Act, with the approval of the State Government. (2) No Board shall sell, let, exchange or otherwise dispose of any land vested in it under S. 62, except with the sanction of the State Government. blished in the Assam Gazette, dated 10-1-1966. 64. Execution of contracts :- (1) The Board may enter into and perform any contract necessary for the purposes of this Act. (2) Every contract made by or on behalf of a Municipal Board in respect of any sum exceeding five hundred rupees which shall involve a value exceeding five hundred rupees, shall be sanctioned by the Board at a meeting, and shall be in writing, and signed by at least two of the members one of whom shall be the Chairman or Vice-Chairman, and shall be sealed with the common seal of the Board. Unless so executed, such contract shall not be binding on the Board. 65. Transfer of certain public institutions to Boards :- (2) If the Board at the meeting shall, after publication of the aforesaid notice, object to the transfer to itself of any hospital, dispensary, school, rest-house, ghat or market, on the ground that its funds cannot bear the charge, then such transfer shall not be made save under such conditions as the Board at a meeting may agree to accept. 66. Transfer of private roads, etc., to Boards :- The Board at a meeting may agree with the person in whom the property in any road, bridge, tank, ghat, well, channel or drain is vested, to take over the property therein or the control thereof, and after such agreement may declare by notice in writing put up thereon or near thereto that such road, bridge, tank, ghat, well, channel or drain has been transferred to the Board. Thereupon, the property therein or the control thereof, as the case may be, shall vest in the Board and such road, bridge, tank, ghat, well, channel or drain shall thenceforth be repaired and maintained out of the municipal fund. 67. Acquisition of land :- When any land, whether within or without the limits of a municipality, is required for the purposes of this Act the State Government may, at the request of the Board, proceed to acquire it under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (Act 1 of 1894) ; and on payment by the Board of the compensation awarded under that Act, and of any other charges incurred in acquiring the land, the land shall vest in the Board. CHAPTER 5 Municipal Taxation Imposition of taxes 68. Taxes :- (2) Taxes of providing public utility services. The Board may, from time to time at a meeting convened as aforesaid, and in accordance with a scale of fees to be approved by the State Government, charge a fee in respect of the issue and the renewal of any licence which may be granted by the Board under the Act and in respect of which no fee is leviable under sub-S. (1). (3) Nothing in this section shall authorise the imposition of any tax or fee which the State Legislature has no power to impose in the State under the Constitution. 68A. Taxes for providing public utility services :- Every Board within whose area public utility services such as electricity, water supply, sanitation are provided shall levy, within four months of the providing of such service or services or within four months of the coming into force of this section, whichever is later, a tax on the holdings covered by such service or services expressed as a percentage of the tax assessed under S. 68 (1)(a): Provided that the tax or taxes levied under this section shall be so regulated that the net proceeds may not exceed the gross cost of providing the service or services, 69. Taxes on Government holdings :- Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, all municipal taxes in respect of Government holdings shall be payable by Government themselves to the Municipal Boards and not by occupiers. 70. Restriction regarding tax on holdings :- Where the aggregate annual value of all holdings held by one owner within the municipality does not exceed six rupees, the tax mentioned in S. 68 (1) (a) shall not be imposed on any of the holdings of the said owner, provided such owner is not assessed with any profession tax or income-tax. 71. Restriction regarding water-tax and lighting tax :- (2) The amount of the tax may vary with the distance of holdings from the nearest stand-pipe or other sources of water supply, and the amount may be higher in the case of premises to which communication pipes are attached than in case of other premises. (3) The Board, at its discretion, may compound for any period not exceeding one year with the person liable to pay the tax on any railway premises or any premises used as a factory, dockyard, workshop, mazdur depot, school, college, hospital, market, court- house, jail, reformatory, lunatic asylum, or other similar place, for a certain sum to be paid by such person in lieu of the tax. (4) Subject as aforesaid in the preceding sub-sections additional water tax under S. 212 shall be imposed only in the areas served by the closed sanitary water-flushed sewerage system. 72. Restriction regarding latrine-tax :- (3) Subject as aforesaid in the preceding sub-sections additional latrine tax under S. 212 shall be imposed only in the areas served by the closed sanitary water-flushed sewerage system. (4) A rebate of not less than fifty per centum of the latrine-tax on a holding shall be allowed if the holding is provided with sanitary- type latrines and does not contain any service latrine. (a) that the tax shall be imposed only in case of places situated within an area for which a scheme for construction of a drainage system has been approved by the State Government; (b) that in fixing the amount or amounts of the tax regard shall be had to the principle that the total net proceeds of the tax shall not exceed the amount required for constructing, extending, improving, or maintaining the system of drainage together with the amount required to meet the proportionate share of the cost of supervision and the collection of the tax ; and (c) that the tax shall not be leviable until a system of drainage shall have been made in the area to be so provided ; or shall the tax be leviable for any quarter or portion of a quarter antecedent to the provisions of such a system of drainage. 73. Restriction regarding drainage tax :- The imposition of a tax under S. 68, sub-S. (1) (e), shall be subject to the following restrictions, namely : (a) that the tax shall be imposed only in case of places situated within an area for which a scheme for construction of a drainage system has been approved by the State Government; (b) that in fixing the amount or amounts of the tax regard shall be had to the principle that the total net proceeds of the tax shall not exceed the amount required for constructing, extending, improving, or maintaining the system of drainage together with the amount required to meet the proportionate share of the cost of supervision and the collection of the tax ; and (c) that the tax shall not be leviable until a system of drainage shall have been made in the area to be so provided ; or shall the tax be leviable for any quarter or portion of a quarter antecedent to the provisions of such a system of drainage. 74. Special provision regarding tax on private markets :- The tax mention d in S 68, sub-S. (1) (f), shall be determined by the Board at a meeting with the approval of the State Government, according to the size and importance of such markets. 75. Restriction regarding fire brigade and anti-material fees :- I n fixing the rates of fees under S. 68, sub-S. (1) (i) and (m), regard shall be bad to the principle that the total net proceeds of the fees shall not exceed the amount required for making, extending, maintaining and improving the tire brigade services or the anti-material and other social services for improvement of public health, as the case may be, or for making contributions to the organisations running such services together with the amount sufficient to meet the proportionate share of the cost of supervision and collection and the repayment of and payment of interest of any loan incurred in connection with such services. 76. Board to determine valuation of holdings :- When it has been decided to impose any tax on the annual v.ilue of holdings, the assessor after making such inquiries as may be necessary, shall determine the valuation of all holdings within the municipality as hereinafter provided, and shall enter the same in a list called the valuation list, which shall be in the prescribed form : Provided that valuations other than general valuations may be made by the Board through such person as may be authorised by the Board in this behalf. 77. Returns required for ascertaining annual value The assessor, in order to prepare the valuation list :- may whenever he thinks fit by notice require the owners or occupiers of all holding to furnish him, within fifteen days, with returns of the rent or annual value thereof and description of the holdings in such detail as the Board may direct ; and the assessor, at any time between sunrise and sunset, may enter, inspect and measure any such holding : Provided that at least forty-eight hours' previous notice of the intention to enter, inspect and measure any holding shall be given to the owner or occupier thereof, unless he waives his right to such notice. 78. Penalty for default in furnishing return :- Whoever refuses or fails to furnish any such return for the space of a fortnight from the day on which he has been required to do so, or knowingly furnishes a false or incorrect return or description, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty rupees, and to a further fine not exceeding five rupees for each day during which he omits to furnish a true and correct return ; and whoever obstructs, hinders or prevents the assessors appointed by the Board from entering or inspecting or measuring any such holding shall be liable to a fine not exceeding two hundred rupees. 79. Determination of annual value of holding :- (1) The anpual value of a holding shall be deemed to be the gross annual rental at which the folding may reasonably be expected to let. (2)In the case of a holding with a building or buildings used or occupied for the residence by the owner himself, the annual value of such holding shall be deemed to be an amount which is less by twenty-five per cent than-the valuation fixed on the letting basis under sub-S. (1) above, , 80. Determination of rate of tax on holding Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Board at a meeting :- to be held before the Close of the year preceding the year to which tax will app!y, shall determine the percentage on the valuation of holdings at which any tax-on the annual Value of holdings shall be levied, and the percentage so fixed shall remain in force until the Board at a meeting shall determine some other percentage at which the tax will be levied from the beginning of the next year : Provided that, when this Act is first extended to any place the first tax shall be levied from the beginning of the quarter next after that, in which the percentage has been fixed by the Board at a meeting. 81. Preparation of Assessment Register :- As soon as possible" after the percentage at which the tax is to be levied sball have been determined under the preceding section, the Board shall cause to be prepared an Assessment Register which shall contain the following particulars, and any others which the Board may think proper to include ... (a) number of the holding on the register with the name of the road, if any, in which the holding is situated ;. (b) annual value of the holding (as stated? in the valuation list) ; (c) names of owner and occupier ; (d) amount of tax payable for the financial year ; (e) amount of taxes payable separately under S, 68 (1), (a), (b), (c) or (d) ; (f) amounts of quarterly instalments; and (g) if the holding is exempted from assessment, a note to that effect. 82. Power to assess consolidated tax for house and land on which it stands :- (1) If any house belongs to one owner and the land on which it stands and any adjacent land which is usually occupied therewith belongs to another, the Board may value such house and land together, and may impose thereon one consolidated tax. (2) The total amount of the tax shall be payable by the owner of the house, who shall thereafter be entitled to deduct from the rent which he pays for the land such proportion of the tax so paid by him as is equal to the proportion which such rent bears to the annual value of the holding. (3) In case of disputes, the Board shall determine what amount the owners of the house and of the land shall pay respectively Revision of valuation list and Assessment Register 83. Redaction of valuation, revision of valuation and assessment and revision of valuation list and Assessment Register :- (2) The Board shall give at least one month's notice to any person interested in any alteration which the Board proposes to make under Cl. (a), (b), (c) or (d) of sub-S. (1) and of the date on which the alteration will be made. (3) Every alteration made under sub-S. (1) in the Assessment Register shall be signed by the Chairman or Vice-Chairman, 84. Notice to be given to Chairman of all transfers of title of persons liable to payment of tax :- (1) Whenever the title to any holding is transferred both the transferor and the transferee shall, for the purpose of S. 83 (1) (b) within three months after the execution of the instrument of transfer, or if no such instrument is executed, within three months after the transfer is effected, give notice in writing of such transfer to the Board. (2) In the event of the death of the person in whom such title vests, the person to whom as heir or otherwise the title of the deceased is transferred by descent or device shall within one year from the death of the deceased, give notice in writing of such succession to the Board (3) Every person liable for the payment of taxes on any holding, who transfers his title to or over such property, without giving notice of such transfer to the Board, as aforesaid shall, unless the Board at the meeting on the ground of hardship arising out of special circumstances otherwise directs, continue to be liable for the payment of all such taxes from time to time payable in respect of the said property until he gives such notice, or until the transfer shall have been recorded in the municipal books. (4) The Board may levy a fee not exceeding one rupee for every such transfer of title to holding. 84A. Prohibition of registration in certain cases :- Where any deed or document required to be registered under the Indian Registration Act, 1908 (Central Act 16 of 1908) purports to transfer the title to any holding falling within a municipality, no Registering Officer shall register any such deed or document unless the party presenting the deed or document for registration produces a certificate from the Municipal Board to the effect that there is no arrears of any tax assessed under this Act, which is payable to the Board in respect of the holding. 85. Revision of valuation list :- (1)A new valuation list shall, unless otherwise ordered by the State Government, be prepared in the same manner as the originallist, once in every five years. (2) Subject to any alteration or amendment made under S. 83 and to the result of any application under S. 95. every valuation and assessment entered in the valuation list or the Assessment Register, shall be valid from the date on which the list or register takes effect in the municipality. 86. Appointment of assessor and power of State Government to direct the appointment of assessor :- (1) The Board, at a meeting for the purpose of general valuation, may, with the approval of the Stale Government, appoint an assessor who is neither an employee nor a commissioner of the Board on such pay and with such establishment as it may determine, (2) Notwithstanding anything contained in S 85, if at any time it appears to the State Government that the valuation in any municipality is insufficient, excessive or inequitable) the State Government may, by an order in writing, require the Board to revise the valuation or to show cause against revision within a specified time, and if the Board fails to comply with the order or in the opinion of the State Government the cause shown is inadequate or the revised valuation also is insufficent, excessive or inequitable, the. State Government may by an order in writing require the, Board to appoint with the approval of the State Government ah assessor for the municipality within a time and for a period to be specified in the order. The order shall fix the pay of the assessor and the cost of his establishment and the pay and cost shall be paid monthly by the Board. 87. Revision of assessment register :- Whenever the valuation list is revised or altered wholly or in part or a new percentage is fixed under S. 80 the assessment register also shall be revised and consequential changes made therein. 88. Effect of revision of assessment register :- The first assessment register prepared for any municipality under the Act and any; revision thereof or alteration therein made under the foregoing section shall, subject to the provisions of Ss. 83 and 96, take effect from the beginning of the quarter following the publication of the notice mentioned in S. 94. Duty on transfer of property, 89. Method of assessment of duty on transfer property :- In addition, to the mution fee as provided in sub-S. (4),of S.84 aduty on transfer of property shall be levied in the form.of .a surchargeon the duty imposed by the IndianStamp Act. 1899 (Act II of 1899), as in force for the time being in the State of Assam, on instruments of sale, gifts and mortgage with possession of immovable property situated within the limits of a municipality, at a rate of one per cent of the amount of -the consideration, the value of the property, or the amount secured by the mortgage, as the case may be, 90. Provisions applicable on the introduction of transfer duty :- On the introduction of the transfer duty (a) section 27 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1890 (Act II of 1899), shall be read as if it specifically required the particulars to be set forth separately in respect of property situated within the limits of a municipality and outside such limits ; (b) section 6,4 of the same Act shall be read as if it referred to the Municipal Board concerned as well as the Government. 91. Poyer to make rules regarding assessment and collection of tranfer duty :- The State Government may make" rules not inconsistent with this, Act for regulating the collection of the duty, the payment thereof to the Municipal Boards concered and deduction of any expenses incutred by the Government in the colleccion thereof. 92. Exemptions and remissions :- (1) The tax mentioned in S. 68, sub-S. (1) (a), (o) and (d), shall not be assessed or levied on any building or holding which is used exclusively as a place of public worship, or on any holding which is duly registered as a public burial of burning ground under this Act. (2) The Board at a meeting may exempt from assessment to the tax mentioned in S. 68, sub-S. (1) (a), any holding used for the purposes of a public charity. 93. Powers of assessor :- Assessor appointed by the Board under S. 86 shall exercise all the powers of valuation the same being vested in the Board, but shall hear or determine applications for review made under S 95. 94. Publication of notice of assessment :- (1) When the valuation list mentioned in S. 76 and the assessment register mentioned in S. 81 shall have been prepared or revised, the Chairman shall sign the same and shall cause them to be deposited in the office of the Board and shall cause a notice in the prescribed form to be published in the manner prescribed. (2) In all cases in which any property is for the first time assessed or the assessment is increased, the Chairman shall also give notice thereof to the owner or occupier of the property. 95. Application for review :- (2) When an assessor has been appointed under S. 86, notice of every such application shall be given by the Board to the assessor. 96. Procedure for review :- (1) Every application presented under S. 95 shall be heard and determined by a committee consisting of not more than five members or by an officer of Government not below such rank as t h e State Government may determine, whose services the Board'obtains and to whom the Board at a meeting delegates the powers and functions of the committee in this behalf. (3) No such application shall be heard or determined by the Committee unless at least three members including the Chairman or the Vice-Chairman are present. (4) The Committtee or the officer of Government shall give notice to the applicant of the time and place at which his application will be heard and after taking such evidence and making such enquiries as may be deemed necessary in the presence of the objector or his agent, if he appears, pass such orders as are thought fit in respect of such application. (5) If the Committee or the officer of Government order that any valuation to which the application relates shall be reduced brief reasons for such reduction shall be recorded. (6) The decision of the Committee or of a majority of the members thereof, or of the officer of Government, in respect of any application referred to in this section shall be final. 97. Limitation of time for application for review :- Unless good cause shall be shown to the satisfaction of the aforesaid Committee or officer of Government for extending the time allowed, and save as is otherwise expressly provided in this Act, no such application shall be received after the expiration of one month from the date of the publication of the notice required by S. 94 relating to the list or register containing the assessment, in respect of which the application is made, or after the expiry of fifteen days from the date of service of the first notice of demand for payment at the rate in respect of which the application is made, whichever period shall last expire : Provided that if the Board has served a notice under S. 94 on any person, no such application shall be received from him after expiration of fifteen days from the date of such service. 98. Assessment to be questioned only under the Act :- No objection shall be taken to any assessment or valuation in any other manner than in this Act is provided. 99. Tax not invalid for want of form :- No assessment of tax on property and no charge or demand of any tax made under authority of this Act shall be invalid for error or defect of form, and it shall be enough in any valuation or assessment for the purpose if the property so valued or assessed is so described as to be generally known and it shall not be necessary to name the owner or occupier thereof. 100. Recovery from occupier of tax due from non-resident owner :- If any tax payable under this Act by owner of any holding remains unpaid after the notice of demand has been duly served, and such owner be not resident within the municipality, or the place of abode or such owner be unknown, the same may be recovered from the occupier for the time being of such holding, who may deduct, from the next and following payments of his rent the amount of which may be so paid by or recovered from him : Provided that no arrear of tax which has remained due from the owner of any holding for more than one year shall be so recovered from the occupier there of; Provided also that if any such holding is occupied by more than one person, the sum to be recovered from any one of such persons shall be proportionate to the value of the part of the holding in occupation of such persons. 101. Recovery from owner of occupiers (ax in certain cases :- If any holding shall be occupied by more than one tenant holding severally, it shall be lawful for the Board, to recover from the owner of such holding, any taxes payable under this Act by the occupier also of the holding. 102. Recovery by owner of occupiers tax paid by owner :- Whenever any tax shall be recovered from any owner of any holding under the provisions of the preceding section, it shall be lawful for such owner, if there shall be but one occupying tenant of such entire holding, to recover from such tenant the entire amount of the tax which shall have been so paid by such owner, and, if there shall be one occupying tenant of a part of such holding or more than one occupying tenant of such holding, then to recover from such tenant or each of such tenants such sum as shall bear to the entire amount of tax which may have been so recovered from such owner the same proportion as the value of the portion of such holding in the occupation of such tenant bears to the entire value of such holding, subject, however, to the provisions of the next succeeding section. 103. Method of recovery by owner :- Every owner who, under the provisions of the preceding section, may be entitled to recover any sum from any occupying tenant of any holding or of any portion thereof, shall have for the recovery of such sum all such and the same remedies, powers, rights, and authorities as if such sum were rent payable to such owner by such tenant in respect of so much of such holding as may be in the occupation of such tenant. 104. Taxes when payable :- (1) The amount due by any person on account of any tax on the annual value of holdings, shall be deemed to be the amount entered in the register, the notice relating to which is published under S. 94. unless the amount entered in such register is subsequently altered as provided in this Act, in which case the amount to which the assessment is so altered shall be deemed to be the amount due. (2) Such tax shall be payable in quarterly instalments and every such instalment shall be deemed to be due on the first day of the quarter in respect of which it is payable. 105. Office hours for receipt of money :- (1) The Board shall, by notice to be posted up in their office, declare at what hours of each day (not being a Sunday or other recognised holiday) the office shall be open for the receipt of money and the transaction of business. (2) Receipts to be given. For all sums paid on account of any tax, fee or other moneys due under this Act a receipt stating the amount and the tax, fee or other charge on account of which it is paid shall be given, signed by the tax collector or by some other officer authorised by the Board to grant such receipts. 106. Bill and notice of demand :- (2) Such bill and notice shall be signed by or stamped with a facsimile signature of the Chairman, Vice-Chairman or an officer duly authorised in that behalf. 107. Issue of process of attachment :- (2) Penalty at the rate of three and one-eighth per cent shall be charged on the arrears with effect from the sixteenth day following the date of the service of notice under S. 106 (1) or of the order made on the application for review under S. 96. 108. Attachment how to be made :- (1) Every warrant of attachment and sale under the preceding section shall be issued by the Board, and shall be in the prescribed form. Attachment shall be made by actual seizure of movable property, and the officer charged with the execution of the warrant shall be responsible for the due custody thereof. (2) When a warrant of attachment is issued it shall not be discharged before it is executed except upon payment of the sum due together with one-fourth of the costs referred to in S. 107. 109. Power of officer to break open door :- The officer charged with the execution of the warrant may, under the special order of the Chairman or Vice-Chairman, between sunrise and sunset break open any outer or inner door or window of a house in order to make the attachment, if he has reasonable ground for believing that such house contains any movable property belonging to the defaulter, and if, after notification of his authority and purpose and demand of admittance duly made he cannot otherwise obtain admittance : Provided that he shall not enter or break open the door of any room appropriated for the zenana or residence of women, which by the usage of the country is considered private, without giving an opportunity and facilities for the retirement of the women. 110. Sale how to be conducted :- (1) If the sum due be not paid with costs before the time fixed for the sale, or the warrant be not discharged or suspended by the Board, the movable property seized shall be sold by auction, at the time and place specified, in the most public manner possible and the proceeds shall be applied in discharge of the arrears and costs. (2) The surplus sale-proceeds, if any, shall be credited to the Municipal Fund, and may be paid on demand to any person who establishes his right to the satisfaction of the Board or in a Court of competent jurisdiction. (3) The tax collector or other officer authorised in that behalf shall make a return of all such sale to the Board in the prescribed form. 111. Certain persons prohibited from purchasing at sales :- A l l commissioners, officers and servants of the Board, and all chaukidars, constables and other officers of police are prohibited from purchasing any property at any such sale. 112. Board to keep account of attachments and sales :- The Board shall cause a regular account to be kept of all attachments and sales made for the recovery of taxes, tolls and fees under this Act. 113. Sale of property beyond limits of municipality :- If the Board is unable to recover under S. 110 the sum due with costs, the Magistrate may, on the application of the Board, issue a warrant to any officer of his Court for the attachment and sale of any movable property or effects belonging to the defaulter within any other part of the jurisdiction of the Magistrate, or for the attachment and sale of any movable property belonging to the defaulter within the jurisdiction of any other Magistsate exercising jurisdiction within the State of Assam, and such other Magistrate shall endorse the warrant so issued, and cause it to be executed, and the amount, if levied to be remitted to the Magistrate issuing the warrant, who shall remit the same to the Board. 114. Attachment or sale not unlawful for want of form :- No attachment or sale made under this Act shall be deemed unlawful, nor shall any party making the same be deemed a trespasser on 'account of any error, defect or want of form in the bill, notice, summons, warrant of attachment, inventory or other proceeding relating thereto. 115. Board may bring saits instead of distraining on failure of attachment :- Instead of proceeding by attachment and sale or in case of failure to realise thereby the whole or any part of any tax, the Board may s u e the the person liable to pay the same in any Court of competent jurisdiction. 116. Liability of purchaser for vendors share of tax :- The purchaser of any holding or part of a holding, in respect of which any sum is due at the time of purchase on account of any tax under this Act shall, subject to the provision of sub-S. (3) of S. 84 be liable for the said sum. Licence fees on carts, carriages and animals 117. Licence fees on carts, carriages and animals :- (1) When it has been determined that licence fees on carts, carriages and animals shall be imposed under under S 68, sub-S (1), the Board at a meeting shall make an order that the owner of every cart, carriage and animal of the kind specified therein, which is kept or used within the municipality, shall take out a licence and pay such fees as are fixed in the order, and shall cause such order to be published in the manner prescribed. (2) The Board may, with the approval of the State Government, determine the maximum number of carts and carriages which may be licensed under sub-S. (1). 118. Fees so fixed to continue until altered :- Any order of the Board imposing licence fees under the preceding section shall continue in force until recinded, and the fees shall be charged at the rates specified in the order published as aforesaid unless and until the Board at a meeting held not less than one month before the end of the financial year, make and publish an order specifying any different fees which shall be charged for the ensuing financial year. 119. . :- Licences how to be obtained4 In any municipality in which licence fees have been imposed under S. 117, the owner of every cart, carriage and animal specified in the order under the aforesaid section shall, within the first month of each half year, forward to the Board, a statement in writing, signed by him, containing a description of the carts, carriages and animals for which he is bound to take out a licence. Such owner shall, at the same time, pay to the Board such sum as shall be payable by him for the current half year of the carts, carriages and animals specified in such statement, according to the fees specified in any order for the time being in force under the two preceding sections. 120. Proportionate fee on carts, carriages, etc. :- acquired dating half year. If any person acquires possession, at any time after the commencement of any half-year, of any cart, carriage or animal specified in the order under S. 117 in respect of which no licence has been given for such half year, he shall forward a statement as above required within one month of the date on which he may have acquired possession thereof, and shall pay such amount of fee as shall bear the same proportion to the whole fee or the half-year as the expired portion of the half-year bear to the half-year ; and such amount shall be calculated from the date on which such person may have acquired possession as aforesaid. 121. On payment of fee, Board to give a licence :- On receiving the amount of the fees due as aforesaid, the Board, or some persons authorised by them in that behalf, shall give to the person paying the same a licence and a token of registration number for the several carts, carriages and animals for the period in respect of which the amount is received. Such licence shall be for the current half-year. 122. Carts, carriages, etc. :- liable to fee, although the owner be absent. Whenever the owner of any cart, carriage or animal liable to pay the said fee is not resident within the limits of the municipality to which the fee is due, the person in whose immediate possession the cart, carriage or animal is for the time being kept shall take out a licence for the same. 123. Penalty :- Whoever keeps, or is in possession of, any cart, carriage or animal without the licence required by any of the three preceding sections shall be liable to a fine not exceeding four times the amount payable by him in respect of such licence, inclusive of the amount so payable. 124. Board may compound with livery stable-keepers :- The Board, at their discretion, may compound for any period not exceeding one year, with livery stable keepers and other persons keeping carts, carriages or animals for hire, for a certain sum to be paid for the carts, carriages or animals so kept by such person in lieu of the licence fees specified in any order made by the Board under Ss. 117 and 118 125. List of licensed persons to be prepared :- The Board shall, from time to time, cause to be prepared and entered in a book, to be kept by them, and to be opened to the inspection of any person interested therein, a list of persons to whom during the then current half-year a licence has been given and of the carts, carriages and animals in respect of which they have paid the fees. 126. Power to inspect stables, etc. :- and to summon persons liable to the payment of the fee. The Board, or any person authorised by them in that behalf, may at any time between sunrise and sunset enter and inspect any stable or coach house, or any place wherein they may have been reasons to believe that there is any cart, carriage or animal liable to the licence fee, for which a licence has not been duly taken out. And the Board may summon any person whom they have reason to believe to be liable to the payment of any such fee or any servant of such person, and may examine such person or servant as to the number and description of the carts, carriages and animals in respect of which such person is liable to pay licence fees. 127. Refund of fees in certain cases :- On proof being given to the satisfaction of the Board that a cart, carriage or animal, for which a licence has been taken out for any half-year, has ceased to be used or kept for use, Within the municipality during the course of such half-year, the Board shall order a refund of so much of the licence fee for the half-year as shall bear the same proportion to the whole fee for the half-year as the period during which such cart, carriage or animal has not been so kept or used in the municipality bears to the half-year ; but no such refund shall be allowed unless notice be given to the Board within one month of the time when such cart, carriage or animal ceased to be so kept or used, and except for special cause shown, the Board shall pass no order for refund until after the close of the half-year in respect of which the refund is claimed. 127A. Licence fee on boats :- (2) Whoever owns or is in possession of any boat without a valid licence shall be punishable with a fine not exceeding one hundred rupees. 128. Registration and numbering of dogs and cattle :- When it has been determined that fees on the registration of dogs or cattle shall be imposed under S. 68, sub-S. (1) (b), the Board at a meeting shall make an order that every dog. or cattle which is kept within the municipality, shall be registered by the Board with the name and residence of the owner and shall bear the number of registration in such manner as the said Board shall direct. Such order shall be published at least one month before the beginning of the half-year in which it shall first take effect and shall specify the fee, not exceeding such amount as may be prescribed by rule, which shall be paid for each registration. 129. Fees so fixed to continue until altered :- Any order of the Board ordering registration fees to be paid under the preceding section shall continue in force until rescinded and the fees shall be charged at the rates specified in the order published as aforesaid. 130. Period of registratioo :- The registration of dogs or cattle shall be made, and the numbers assigned, yearly or half-yearly, upon such days as the Board shall notify. 131. Proportionate payment of fee :- If any person acquires possession, at any time after the commencement of any period of registration, of any dog or cattle which have not been registered for such period, he shall register the same within one month from the date on which he may have acquired possession thereof, and shall pay such amount of fee as shall bear the same proportion to the whole fee for the current period of registration as the unexpired portion of the current period of registration bears to the whole of such period, and such fee shall be calculated from the date on which such person may have acquired possession as aforesaid. 132. Transfer of ownership :- When the ownership of any registered dog or cattle is transferred within any period of registration, it shall be registered anew within one month of the transfer in the name of the person to whom it has been transferred, and a fee not exceeding twenty-five paise shall be paid for every such last mentioned registration. 133. Penalty :- Whoever keeps, a dog or cattle not duly registered as required by any of the three preceding sections, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding four times the amount payable by him in respect of such registration, inclusive of the amount so payable. 134. Seizure and sale of unlicensed cart, carriage or animal :- (1) If any person owns or keeps any cart, carriage or animal hereinbefore requiredto be licensed, without a licence, the Board or any person authorised by them in that behalf may seize and detain such cart, carriage or animal (provided the same be not employed at the time of seizure in the conveyance of any passengers or goods) ; and all police officers are required, on the application of the Board or of any servant of the Board duly authorised in that behalf, to assist in the said seizure. (2) After such seizure the Board shall forthwith issue a notice in writing that after the expiration of ten days they will sell such cart, carriage or animal by auction at such place as they may state in the notice, and, if any licence fee, together with the cost arising from such seizure and custody, remains unpaid for ten days after the issue of such notice, the Board may sell the property seized for payment of the said fee, and of all expenses occasioned by such non-payment, seizure, custody and sale. (4) Notwithstanding anything contained in this section, the surplus of the sale proceeds of a cart, carriage or animal seized under this section may be devoted to the payment of any fine imposed under the preceding section ; and any cart, carriage or animal which has been seized under this section may be sold for the realization of any such fine. 135. Prohibition of double fees :- Nothing contained in this Act shall be deemed to authorise two or more local authorities to levy, between them, more than one fee for the same period in respect of any cart, carriage or animal and in the event of any dispute arising as to which of several local authorities is to levy the fee or as to how the fee levied is to be apportioned between several local authorities, the question shall be referred to the State Government and its decision shall be final ; provided that, where one of the local authorities is a cantonment authority, the decision of the State Government shall be subject to the concurrence oi the Central Government. 136. Power of Board to establish toll bars, and levy tolls :- The Board at a meeting, with the previous sanction of the State Government, may establish a toll-bar on any bridge within the municipality which has, before or after the date of the commencement of this Act, been constructed or purchased out of the municipal fund, or to the cost of the construction or purchase of which contribution has, before or after the said dale, been made out of the municipal fund and may levy tolls at such toll-bar on persons, vehicles, and animals passing over such bridge : 137. Lease of toll-bar :- The Board may grant a lease, for any period not exceeding three years of any toll-bar established under S. 136. 138. Procedure where two or more local authorities have contributed towards cost of bridge :- When the Board with any other local authority having jointly constructed, purchased or contributed towards the cost of the construction or widening of a bridge, have received the sanction of the State Government to the establishment of a toll-bar the toll shall be levied or granted in lease by such local authority as the State Government may, in its order according sanction, direct, and the proceeds of such tolls, or of the lease thereof, shall be adjusted between the local authorities according to rules made in this behalf by the State Government ; provided that where one of the local authorities is a cantonment authority, the powers of the State Government under this section shall be exercisable only with the concurrence of the Central Government. 139. Exemptions from payment of toll :- (2) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to affect the provisions of the Indian Tolls (Army and Air Force) Act, 1901 (Act II of 1901). 140. Rates of tolls :- (1) When it has been determined that tolls shall be levied at any toll-bar established under S. 126, the Board shall, from time to time, make and publish an order specifying the rates at which the tolls shall be levied. (2) A table of such tolls, legibly printed or written in English and the Vernacular of the district, shall be affixed in some conspicuous portion near every such toll-bar, so as to be easily readable by all persons required to pay the tolls. (3) In default of compliance with sub-S. (2), the toll-collector or the lessee of the toll-bar, as the case may, shall be liable to a fine which may extend to fifty rupees, and to a further fine which may extend to ten rupees for each day after the first day during which the default continues. 141. Power to compound for tolls :- The Board or the lessee of any toll-bar may compound with any person for a certain sum to be paid by such person for himself or for any vehicles or animals kept by him in lieu of the rates specified under S. 140. 142. Power of toll-collector or lessee in case of refusal to pay toll :- Any toll-collector or lessee of a toll-bar established under S 136 may refuse to allow any person to pass through the toll-bar until the proper toll has been paid. 143. Penalty for refusing to pay toll :- Whoever having rendered himself liable to the payment of toll, refuses to pay the toll, shall be liable to a fine which may extend to fifty rupees. 144. Police officers to assist :- Where resistance is offered to any person authorised under this Act to collect tolls, any police officer whom he may call to his aid shall be bound to assist him ; and such police officer shall, for that purpose, have the same powers as he has been in the exercise of his ordinary police duties. 145. Penalty for taking unauthorised tolls :- When any person, authorised to collect toll, realises any tolls higher than the tolls authorised under this Act, he shall be punishable with fine which may extend to fifty rupees and in default of payment, to imprisonment for a term which may extend to one month, 146. Board to publish expenses of toll-bars :- (2) When such expenses, interest and capitalised value have been recovered as aforesaid, such toll-bar shall forthwith be removed and tolls no longer be levied on such bridge. 147. Functions in regard to pounds :- Every Municipal Board shall, in regard to the establishment, maintenance and management of pounds, perform such functions as may be transferred to it by notification under S. 31 of the Cattle Trespass Act, 1871 (Act 1 of 1871), and lease out pounds, when so transferred, according to rules framed under this section. 148. Rents, tools and fees :- (1) The Board, if decided in a meeting, may use their own land or land with building or land purchased, taken on lease or otherwise acquired with or without building for the purpose of establishment of a Municipal Market, Bus Stand, Truck Stand, Taxi Stand, Auto Stand and Parking Yard for improving any existing Municipal Market. Bus Stand, Taxi Stand, Auto Rickshaw or Rickshaw Stand and Parking Yard. (2) The Board, if decided in a meeting, may levy rent, tolls and fees at such rates as it may think proper for the tight to expose goods for sale in a Municipal Market and for the use of shops, stalls and stands therein and also in respect of parking lots and may also regulate such rates in respect of private markets or places used or declared by the Board as a market place, parking lot by public notice in the locality. (3) The Board may grant a lease according to rules under this section for a period not exceeding three years for the collection of rents, tolls and fees in municipal markets and parking lots at the rates prescribed by the Board under sub-S. (2). (4) A lessee of a municipal market appointed under sub-S- (3) may refuse to allow any person to expose goods for sale in the market or to use shops, stalls and standings therein until the proper rents, tolls and fees have been paid. (5) Whoever, having rendered himself liable to the payment of rents, tolls or fees refuses to pay the same shall be liable to a fine which may extend to two hundred rupees and shall also be liable to be evicted from the place, shop, stall or standing in the market used by him. (6) When resistance is offered to any person authorised to collect rents, tolls or fees, any police officer whom he may call to his aid, shall be bound to assist him, and such police officer shall, for that purpose, have the same powers as he has in the exercise of his ordinary police duties. (7) Whoever realises rent, tolls or fees at rates higher than the rates fixed under sub-S. (2) shall be liable to a fine not exceeding two hundred rupees. 149. Recovery of moneys due to the Board :- (1) All rents, tolls and fees and all costs, expenses or other moneys due under this Act to the Board may be recovered in the manner provided in Ss. 106 to 115, both inclusive. (2) Where any sum is due on account of rent from a person to a Board in respect of land vested in, or entrusted to the management of the Board, the Board may apply to the collector to recover any arrear of such rent as if it were an arrear of land revenue. This procedure will not apply in the case of rents mentioned in sub-S. (2) of S. 148 the realisation of which will be governed by the provisions contained in sub-S. (1) of this section. 150. Power to sell unclaimed holding for money due :- If money be due under this Act in respect of any holding from the owner thereof, on account of any tax, expenses or charges recoverable under this Act, and if the owner of such holding or his whereabouts are unknown or the ownership thereof is disputed, or when the owner lives outside the municipality and has failed to pay in spite of service of demand notices twice, the Board may publish twice, at an interval of three months, a notification of sale of such holding and after the expiry of not less three months from the date of the last publication, unless the amount recoverable be paid, may sell such holding to the highest bidder who shall, at the time of sale, deposit forthwith twenty-five per cent of the purchase money. The balance shall be paid within fifteen days of the date of sale ; in default of the money, if any, so deposited shall be forfeited and the holding shall be resold, and the shortage, if any, may be recovered by the Board from the defaulter as arrears of municipal tax in the manner provided in this Act. After deducting the amount due to the Board as aforesaid, the surplus sale- proceeds, if any, shall be credited to the municipal fund and may be paid on demand to any person who established his right to the satisfaction of such Board or in a Court of competent jurisdiction. Any person may pay the amount due at any time before the completion of the sale and may recover such amount by a suit in a Court of competent jurisdiction from any person beneficially interested in such property. 151. Irrecoverable taxes, etc. :- The Board may order to struck off the books the amount of any tax or fee or other demand which may appear to them to be irrecoverable. CHAPTER 6 Power for sanitary and other purposes 152. Power to close a public road :- (2) Whenever, owing to such repairs or constructions, or from any other cause, any such road or part of such road shall be in a state which is dangerous to passerby, the Board shall cause sufficient barriers or fences to be erected for the security of life and property, and shall cause such barriers or fences to be sufficiently lighted from sunset to sunrise. 153. Prohibition of nse of public road by a class of animals or vehicles :- (1) The Board may, by public notice prohibit or regulate the driving, riding or leading of animals or vehicles of any particular kind along any public road or part of any such road. (2) Any person who disobeys an order passed by the Board under the provisions of sub-S. (1) shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty rupees. 154. . :- Deleted]. 155. Power to require repair of public roads and drains and to declare such roads and drains :- (1) When the Board considers that in any road or drain, not being a public road or drain whether or not previously levelled, paved, metalled, channelled, sewered or repaired out oi municipal or other public funds, or in any part of such road or drain, within the municipality, it is necessary, for the public health, convenience or safety that any work should be done for the levelling, paving, metalling, flagging, channelling, draining, lighting or cleaning thereof, the Board may by written notice require the respective owners of the lands or buildings, fronting, adjoining or abutting upon such road or drain or part thereof, to carry out such work in a manner and within a time to be specified in such notice. (2) If such notice is not complied with during the time specified, the Board may, if it think fit, execute the work mentioned or referred to therein, and may, if it think fit, recover under the provisions of S. 149 the expenses incurred in doing so from the owners in default according to the frontage of their respective lands or buildings and in such proportion as may be decided by the Board. (3) After such work has be en carried out by such owners or, as provided in sub-S. (2) by the Board at the expenses of such owners, the road or drain or part thereof in which such work has been done may, with the consent of the owners be declared to be a public road or drain, and shall on such declaration vest in the Board. 156. Permission to deposit movable property on, or to excavate or enclose, a public road or land :- The Board may grant permission to any person, for such period and on such terms as it may think fit , to deposit any movable property on any public road or any land vested in the Board, or to make an excavation in any such road or any such land, or to enclose the whole or any part of any such road or of any such land, and may charge such fees as it may fix for such permission : Provided that such person undertakes to make due provision for the passage of the public and to erect sufficient fences to protect the public from injury, danger or annoyance, and to light such fences from sunset to sunrise sufficiently for such purpose. 157. Hoards to be set up during repairs :- (2) Any person who contravenes the provisions of sub-S. (1) or who without written permission erects or sets up any hoarding, scaffolding or fence whatsoever, or who, being permitted fails to put up such hoarding, scaffolding or fence or to continue the same standing, or to maintain the same in good condition, or who does not, while such hoarding or fence is standing, keep the same sufficiently lighted during the night, or who does not remove the same within forty-eight hours when directed by the Board, shall be liable, for every such offence, to a fine not exceeding fifty rupees, and to a further fine not exceeding ten rupees for every day during which the offence is continued. 158. Penalty for encroachment on public road, etc. :- Any person, who without the permission of the Board- (a) encroaches upon any public road or house-gully or upon any public drain, sewer, aqueduct, water-course or ghat by making any excavation or by erecting any wall, fence, rail, post, projection or other obstruction, or by depositing any movable property thereon ; or (b) takes up or alters the pavements or other material, fences or posts on any public road ; shall, for every such offence, be liable to a fine not exceeding two hundred rupees and to a further fine not exceeding twenty-five rupees for every day during which the encroachment continues. 159. Removal of obstructions or encroachments in or OD public road :- The Board may issue a notice requiring any person to remove any building which he may have built or any fence, rail, post or other obstruction or encroachment which he may have erected, on any public road, house-gully, public drain, sewer, aqueduct, water course, ghat or any land vested in the Board; and if, such person fails to comply with such requisition within forty eight hours of the receipt of the same, the Magistrate may, on the application of the Board, order that such obstruction or encroachment be removed ; and thereupon the Board may remove any such obstruction or encroachment and the expenses thereby incurred shall be paid by the person who erected the same. 160. Procedure when person who erected obstruction cannot be found :- (1) If the person who built or erected the said building, fence, rail, post or other obstruction or encroachment referred to in the preceding section is not known or cannot be found, the Board may cause a notice to be posted in the neighbourhood of the said building, fence, rail, post or other obstruction or encroachment, requiring any person interested in the same to remove it, and it shall not be necessary to name any person in such requisition. (2) If the said building, fence, rail, post or other obstruction or encroachment be not removed in compliance with the requisition contained in such notice within forty-eight hours of the posting of the same, the Magistrate may, on the application of Board, order that such obstruction or encroachment be removed ; and thereupon the Board may remove any such obstruction or encroachment, and may recover the cost of such removal by sale of the materials so removed. (3) The surplus sale-proceeds, if any, shall be credited to the municipal fund, and may be paid on demand to any person who establishes his right to the satisfaction of the Board or in a Court of competent jurisdicti on. 161. Projection from houses to be removed :- (1) The Board may issue a notice requiring the owner or occupier of any house to remove ot alter any projection, obstruction or encroachment erected or placed against or in front of such house, if the same overhangs the public road just into, or in any way projects or encroaches upon, or is an obstruction to the safe and convenient passages along any public road or house-gully, or obstructs, or projects, or encroaches into or upon any drain, sewer, or aqueduct in any public road or into or upon any public water- course or ghat or any land vested in the Board. (2) If such owner or occupier fails to comply with such requisition within forty-eight hours of the receipt of the same, or within such further time as the Board may allow, the Magistrate may, on the application of the Board, order that such projection, obstruction or encroachment be removed or altered ; and thereupon the Board may remove or alter such projection, obstruction or encroachment, and any reasonable expense incurred for the purposes of such removal or alteration shall be paid by the defaulting owner or occupier. (3) If the expense of removing or altering any such structure or fixture is paid by the occupier of the building, in any case in which the same was not erected by himself, he shall be entitled to deduct any reasonable expense incurred for the purposes of such removal or alteration from the rent payable by him to the owner of the building. (4) The expenses incurred for removal under S. 159 and sub-S. (2) of this section shall, unless paid by the owner or the occupier, be recovered by sale of the materials so removed. If the sale proceeds do not cover the expenses, the portion not so covered shall be realised, in case of S 159, from the person who erected the same, and in case of sub-S. (2) of this section, from the owner or the occupier, as arrears of municipal tax The surplus of sale proceeds, if any, shall be credited to the municipal fund. 162. Power of District and Sab-divisional Magistrates to remove encroachment :- Notwithstanding anything contained in Ss. 159 and 161, a District Magistrate or a Sub-divisional Magistrate may, within his jurisdiction, on being so empowered by the State Government, order any person responsible for any obstruction or encroachment or projection as specified in Ss. 159 and 161 to remove or alter such obstruction or encroachment or projection within a period not less than forty-eight hours and on non- compliance with such order may take all necessary steps to remove or alter such obstruction or encroachment or projection and realise the expenses thereby incurred from the person concerned as fine in a Criminal Court : Provided that in case the person or persons responsible for such obstruction, encroachment or projection is/are not known or cannot be found the procedure laid down in S. 160 shall be followed. 163. Effect of order made under S 159, 160, 161 or 162 :- Every order made by the Magistrate under S. 159, 160, 161 or 162 shall be deemed to be an order made by him to the discharge of his judicial duty and the Board shall be deemed to be persons bound to execute such order within the meaning of the Judicial Officers Protection Act, 1850 (Act XVIII of 1850). 164. Power to regulate line of buildings on public roads and drains :- (1) Whenever a Board considers it expedient to define the general alignment of buildings on each or either side of any existing or proposed public road or drain, it shall give public notice of its intention to do so. (3) The Board shall consider all objections received within the specified period and may then pass a resolution defining the said alignment and the alignment so defined shall be called "the regular line" of the road or drain. (4) Every order made under sub-S. (3) shall be widely published by beat of drum in the locality and a copy thereof affixed to the notice board in the office of the municipality. (5) Thereafter, it shall not be lawful for any person to erect, re- erect or alter a building or part of a building so as to project beyond the regular line of the road or drain unless he is authorised to do so by a sanction given under S. 174 or by a permission in writing under this section and the Board is hereby empowered to grant such permission. (6) Any owner of land, who is prevented by the provisions of this section from erecting, re-erecting, or altering any building on any land, may require the Board to make compensation for any damage which he may sustain by reason of such prevention, and upon the payment of compensation in respect of any land situated within the regular line of the road or drain such land shall vest in the Board. (7) The Board may, by notice, require within a reasonable time the alteration or demolition of any building or part of a building erected, re-erected or altered in contravention of sub-S. (5). 165. Erection of platforms :- (1) No platform shall be erected, re-erected or extended upon or over any public road or drain without the previous sanction of the Board. (2) The owner of every platform, except platforms which are used for giving such access to the houses as the Board may consider necessary shall, if the Board in a meeting so direct, take out a licence for keeping the platform. For every such licence there shall be paid annually a fee to be fixed by the Board at a meeting. (3) Every such licence shall remain in force for one year and shall be renewable annually. (4) Any platform erected, re-erected, extended or maintained in contravention of the provisions of sub-Ss. (1). (2) and (3) shall be deemed to be an "obstruction" for the purposes of Ss, 159, 160 and 161. 166. Fallen building, etc. :- obstructing public road or drain to be removed by owner. Whenever any building or other erection, or any tree, falls down and obstructs any public drain or encumbers any public road, the Board may remove such obstruction or encumbrance at the expense of the owner of the same, or may require him to remove the same within such time as the Board shall seem fit. 167. Cutting of public road or passage of water, etc. :- If any person, in order to provide for the passage of water, or for any other purpose, shall, without the consent of the Board, dig or cut any public road, he shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty-five rupees, and in addition be found to pay the expenses incurred in filling up any excavation made by him or on his behalf in any such public road. 168. Board may require land holders to trim hedges, etc. :- The Board may require the owner or occupier of any land within three days to trim or prune the hedges thereon bordering on any public road or drain, and, to cut and trim any trees or bamboos thereon overhanging any public road, drain or tank, or any well used for drinking purposes, or obstructing any public road or drain or causing or likely to cause damage to any public road or drain or any property of the Board, or likely to cause damage to person using any public road, or fouling or likely to foul the water of any well or tank. 169. Penalty for disobeying requisition under S. 159, 161, 164, 166 or 168 :- Whoever being the owner or occupier of any house or land within a municipality, fails to comply with a requisition issued by the Board under the provisions of S. 159, 161, 164, 166 or 168 shall be liable for every such) default, to a penalty not exceeding fifty rupees and to a further penalty not exceeding ten rupees for every day during which the default is continued after the expiration of eight days from the date of service on him of such requisition. 170. Names ef public roads and numbers of houses :- (1) The Board at a meeting may cause a name to be given to any public road and to be affixed in such place as it may think fit, and may also cause a number to be affixed to every house, and in like manner may, from time to time, cause such names and numbers to be altered. (2) Any person who destroys, pulls down, defaces or alters any name or number put up by the Board under sub-S. (1) shall, for every such offence, be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty rupees. 171. Prohibition of building without sanction :- (2) Every person who intends to erect, materially alter or re-erect any building shall give notice in writing to the Board of such intention. (4) In the municipalities where water works are maintained it shall be compulsory for persons erecting or re-erecting buildings costing Rs. 5,000 or more (excluding cost of land and of improvement of land) to instal sanitary latrines. The Board shall withhold sanction if the plan and specification of the building submitted with the notice do not contain provision for installation of sanitary latrines. 172. Special provision for cases where bye-laws have not been made under S. 302, Cl. (iv) :- In any case in which no bye-laws have been made under S. 302, Cl. (iv), the Board may, within fourteen days of the receipt of the notice required by S. 171, sub-S. (2), require a person who has given such notice to furnish, within one week of the receipt by him of the requisition, information on all or any of the matters as to which bye-laws might have been made, and in such case the notice shall not be valid until such information has been furnished. 173. Non-observance of bye-laws :- The Board at a meeting may dispense with the observance of any or all of the bye-laws made under S. 302, Cls. (Hi) and (iv), in regard to the erection, material alteration or re-erection of any building or class of buildings specified by it. 174. Powers of Board to sanction or refuse :- (1) Within one month after the receipt of the notice required by S 171, sub-S. (2), or Cl. (iii) of S. 302, the Board may refuse to sanction the building or may sanction it either absolutely or subject to such modification as it may deem fit in respect of all or any of the matters specified in S. 302, Cl. (iv); and the person erecting, materially altering or re-erecting any such building as aforesaid shall comply with the sanction of the Board as granted in every particular. (3) In giving permission for the building it shall be obligatory for the Board to conform to the land use pattern and zoning plan prepared by or under the authority of the State Government. 175. Lapse of sanction :- A permission to erect, materially alter or re-erect a building granted under this Chapter or deemed to have been given by the Board shall, unless it is renewed on an application made to the Board for this purpose, continue only for one year after the date on which it is granted, unless the work has been commenced within that period and in any case shall not continue for a period longer than two years from the said date unless it is so renewed. 176. Penalty for building without or in contravention of sanction :- Whoever erects, materially alters or re-erects or commences to erect, materially alter or re-erect any building without the previous sanction of the Board, or in contravention of any directions given by the Board granting sanction under S. 174, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred rupees for every such offence, and to a further fine not exceeding five rupees for each day during which the offence is continued after he has been convicted of such offence. 177. Powers of Board in case of disobedience :- (2) Any person who fails to comply with a requisition issued by the Board under the provisions of sub-S. (1) shall be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty rupees and to a further fine not exceeding ten rupees for every day during which the person continues to make such default after service on him of such requisition. 178. Compensation for prohibition of erection or re-erection :- S ubject to any other provisions in this Act as regards compensation, no compensation shall be claimable by an owner for any damage which he may sustain in consequence of the prohibition of the erection of any building. 179. Roofs and external walls not to be made of inflammable materials :- The Board at a meeting may, by written'notice, require any person who has made any external roof or wall with thatch, mats, leaves or other inflammable materials in contravention of a bye-law made under S. 302, to remove or alter such roof or wall within a period to be specified in the notice. 180. Power to attach brackets for lamps :- The Board may attach or cause to be attached to the outside of any building brackets for lamps in such manner as not to occasion any injury thereto or inconvenience. 181. Buildings unfit for human habitation :- (1) Should a building or a room in a building be in the opinion of the Board unfit for human habitation in consequence of the want of proper means of drainage or ventilation or otherwise, the Board may, by notice, prohibit the owner or occupier thereof from using the building or room for human habitation or suffering it to be so used either absolutely or unless, within a time to be specified in the notice, effects such alteration therein as is specified in the notice. (2) Upon failure of a person to whom notice is issued under sub-S. (1) to comply therewith, the Board may require by further notice the demolition of the building or room. (3) Any person who uses a building or room or suffers it to be used contrary to the provisions of sub-S. (1) shall be liable, for every such offence to a fine not exceeding fifty rupees, and to a further fine not exceeding ten rupees for every day during which the offence is continued after he has been convicted of such offence. 182. Power to require cleansing or lime-washing of buildings :- (1) If it appears to the Board for sanitary reasons so to do, it may authorise an officer of the municipality to inspect a building after due notice to (he owner or occupier It may then by a written notice require the owner or occupier of any building to cause the same or any portion thereof to be lime-washed or otherwise cleansed either externally or internally or both externally and internally. (2) Any owner or occupier of building, who fails to comply with a requisition issued under the provisions of sub-S. (1), shall be liable, for every such default, to a penalty not exceeding twenty-five rupees and to a further penalty not exceeding five rupees for every day during which the default is continued after the expiration of eight days from the date of service on him of such requisition. 183. Fencing of building in a dangerous state :- (2) Where it appears to the Board that immediate action is necessary for the purpose of preventing imminent danger to any person or properly, it shall be the duty of the Board to take immediate action and recover the expense so incurred from the owner or occupier of the building or the owner or occupier of the land to which such building or other structure or anything is affixed. 184. Board may require owners to pull down ruins :- Whenever it appears to the Board that any building by reason of abandonment of disputed ownership or other cause is untenanted, or by reason of having fallen into ruins, affords facilities for the commission of a nuisance by disorderly persons or for the harbouring of snakes or other noxious animals, the Board may require the owner of such building or the owner of the land to which such building is attached, to properly secure the same, or to remove or level such ruins, as the case may require. 185. Penalty for disobeying requisition under S.183 or 184 :- Any owner or ccupier of a house or land who fails to comply with a requisition issued by the Board under the provisions of S 183 or 184, shall be liable, for every such default, to a penalty not exceeding one hundred rupees, and to a further penalty not exceeding twtnty rupees for every day during which the default is continued afrer the expiration of eight days from the date of service on him of such requisition. Tanks, wells, streams, etc. 186. Provision for drinking water, bathing places, etc. :- (1) The Board may, by order published at such places as it may think fit, set apart convenient wells, tanks, parts of rivers, streams, channels or water-courses, not being private property, for the supply of water for drinking or for culinary purposes and may prohibit therein all bathing, washing of clothes and animals, or other acts calculated to pollute the water set apart for the purposes aforesaid ; and may similary set apart a sufficient number of the same for the purpose of bathing ; and a sufficient number for washing animals and clothes or for any other purpose connected with the health, cleanliness or comfort of the inhabitants. (2) The Board may, by an order published at such places as it may think fit, prohibit in the private portion of any stream, channel or watercourse used as a part of the public water supply, bathing, washing of clothes or animals, or any act likely to pollute the water in the public portion of such stream, channel or water-course. 187. Prohibition by Board of use of unwholesome water :- If the Assistant Director of Public Health, Civil Surgeon, District or Sub-divisional Medical Officer of Health or Health Officer certifies that the water in any well, tank or water-course situated within a municipality is likely, if used for any purposes, to endanger or cause the spread of disease, the Board may, by public notice prohibit the removal or use of such water during a period to be specified in such order ; in the case of a private well or tank require the owner of, or person having control over it, to close it permanently or to fill it up with suitable materials. 188. Disobeying order under S.186 or 187 :- Any person who disobeys an order passed by the Board under the provisions of S. 186 or 187 shall, for every such offence, be liable to a penalty not exceeding fifty rupees. 189. Power to require owners to clear noxious vegetation :- The Board may, by notice, require the owner or occupier of any land within such time as the Board may fix to cut and remove any trees or bamboos or branches thereof, or eradicate and destroy lantana, eupatorium, or other vegetation or undergrowth which may appear to the Board to be insanitary, injurious to health or offensive to the neighbourhood or to be causing or likely to cause damage or destruction to any crop growing or to be grown, or to be obstructing or likely to obstruct the free passing of men or animals along a public road, or of any boat or steam vessel along a public waterway. 190. Power to require owners to improve bad drainage :- Whenever any land, being private property, or within any private enclosure, appears to the Board by want of drainage to be in a state injurious to health or offensive to the neighbourhood, or by reason of inequalities of surface to afford facilities for the commission of a nuisance, the Board may require the owner or occupier or the owners and occupiers of such land, within fifteen days to drain such land or level such surface : Provided that, if for the purpose of effecting any drainage under this section it shall be necessary to acquire any land not being property of the person who is required to drain his land, or to pay compensation to any other person, the Board shall provide such land and pay such compensation. 191. Power to require unwholesome tanks or private premises to be cleansed or drained :- (2) If under the provisions of this Act the Board execute the work of such re-excavation or filling up with suitable material, it may retain possession of the tank or pool or the site of such tank or pool and turn the same to profitable account until the expenses thereby incurred shall have been realised. 192. Wells, tanks etc., to be secured :- If any well, tank or other excavation, whether on public or private ground, be, for want of sufficient repair or protection, dangerous to passers-by, the Board shall forthwith require by notice such owner or occupier or such owners and occupiers within eight days properly to secure or protect such well, tank or other excavation ; and if after the said period the work is not executed, the Board shall came a temporary hoard or fence to be put up for the protection of passers-by and recover the expenses so incurred from the owner or occupier or the owners and occupiers of the land on which such tank, well or other excavation is situated. 193. Penalty for disobeying requisition under S. 189, 190, 191 or 192 :- Any owner or occupier of a house or land who fails to comply with a requisition issued by the Board under the provisions of S 189, 190. 191 or 192 shall be liable for every such default, to a penalty not exceeding one hundred rupees, and to a further penalty not exceeding twenty rupees for every day during which the default is continued after the expiration of eight days from the date of service on him of such requisition. 194. Power of State Government to prohibit cultivation, use of manure, or irrigation injurious to health :- If the Assistant Director of Public Health, Civil Surgeon, District or Sub-divisional Medical Officer of Health or the Health Officer certifies that the cultivation of any description of crop, or the use of any kind of manure, or the irrigation of land in any specified manner (a) in any place within the limit of the municipality is injurious, or facilitates practices which are injurious to the health of persons dwelling in the neighbourhood ; or 195. Power to prohibit excavations :- (1) The Board at a meeting may, by a general order, prohibit in the whole or any part of the municipality the making of excavations for the purposes of taking earth or stone therefrom, or for the purposes of storing rubbish or offensive matter therein and the digging of tanks or pits without special permission previously obtained from it. (2) If any such excavation, tank or pit is made after the issue and publication of such order without such special permission, the Board may require the owners and occupiers of the land on which such excavation, tank or pit is made within two weeks to fill up such excavation and in case of failure may cause such excavation to be filled up and recover the cost thereof from the person so required. (3) Any prson who contravenes an order made under sub-S. (1) shall be liable, for every such offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty-five rupees. 196. Public latrines and urinals :- The Board may provide and maintain in sufficient number and in proper situation, public latrines and urinals for the separate use of each sex, and shall cause the same to be kept in proper order and to be properly cleansed. 197. Permission to construct latrines and urinals which are to be properly enclosed :- (1) No person shall construct a latrine or urinal without a written permission of the Board. Every person constructing a latrine or urinal shall have such latrine or urinal shut out by a sufficient roof and wall or fence from the view of persons passing by or residing in the neighbourhood ; and the Board may require any owner or occupier of land on which a latrine or urinal stands to cause the same to be shut out from view as aforesaid within fifteen days. (2) Any person constructing a latrine or urinal and failing to have it shut out from view as required in sub-S. (1), shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty rupees and a daily fine of one rupee until it shall have been so shut out from view. 198. Power to require latrine or urinal to be constructed :- (1) If the Board think that any latrine or urinal or additional or common latrine or urinal should be provided for any house or land within the limits of the municipality, the owners of such house or land shall, within fourteen days after notice given by the Board, or within such longer time as the Board may for special reasons allow, cause such latrine or urinal to be constructed in accordance with the requisition, and, if such latrine or urinal is not constructed to the satisfaction of the Board within such period, the Board may cause the same to be constructed, and the expenses thereby incurred shall be recoverable from the owner. (2) Any person failing to comply with the requisition within the time allowed under sub-S. (1) shall be liable to a fine of not exceeding twenty-five rupees and a daily fine of one rupee during which the default is continued. (3) The Board may, for the purposes of this section or for the purpose of levying the latrine tax at a rate per head under S. 72, sub-S (.2) (a), by a notice in writing require the owner or occupier of any holding to furnish, within a time to be specified in the notice, a list of the number of persons residing in or habitually resorting to such holding. (4) Whoever, being the owner or occupier of any holding, fails to furnish the same by the Board shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred rupees. 199. No latrine, etc., te be constructed in certain circumstances :- (1) No person shall, without a special permission of the Board, construct a latrine or urinal with a door or a trap doer opening on to any public peed or drain. (2) No peron shall, without the written permission of the Board; construct or keep any latrine, uriinal, cess-pool, drain or other receptacle for sewage or other offensive matter within fifty feet of any public tank or water-course or a tank or water-course which the inhabitants of any locality use or any well. (3) The Board may require any owner and occupier upon whose land any latrine or urinal such as is mentioned in sub-S. (1.) or any latrine, urinal, cess-pool, drain or other receptacle so situated as is mentioned in sub-S. (2) exists, or may hereafter be constructed, to remove the same within eight days. (4) Any person who contravenes any provision of suth-Se. (1) and (2) shall be liable for every such offence to a fine not exceeding fifty, rupees. (5) Any person who fails to comply with an order under sub-S.(3) shall be liable to fine of fifty rupees and daily fine of five rupees during which the offence is continued. 200. Inspection of latrines, etc. :- The Board, or any person authorised by it in that behalf, may inspect all latrines, urinals, cess-pools, drains and other receptacles for sewage or other offensive matter at any time between sunrise and sunset, after six hours' notice in writing to the occupier of premises in which such latrines, urinals, cess-pools, drains or receptacles are situated, and may, if necessary, cause the ground to be opened where it or he may think fit for the purpose of preventing or removing any nuisance arising from sueh latrines, urinals, cess-pools, drains or receptacles, and the expenses thereby incurred, if the Board so requires, shall be paid by the owner or occupier of such premises. The expense of causing the ground to be closed and made good as before shall be borne by the Board, 201. Power to require owner or occupier to repair latrine, etc. :- The Board may require the owner or occupier, or the owner and occupier of any land, within fifteen days to repair and make efficient any latrine, urinal, cess-pool, drain or receptacle for sewage or other offensive matter or to close any latrine, urinal, cess-pool or receptacle which is situated on such land. 202. Penalty for not keeping latrine, etc., in proper order :- If the owner or occupier of any latrine, urinal, cess-pool, drain or other receptacles for sewage or other offensive matter neglects or refuses, after warning from the Board to keep the same in a proper state of repair and efficiency, he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding fifty rupees and a daily fine not exceeding five rupees during which the offence is continued : Provided that no person who pays a latrine tax shall be liable to punishment for non-compliance with the provision of this section where the default is exclusively due to the failure of the Board to perform its obligation under this Act. 203. Power to alter any latrine, etc., made contrary to orders :- (1) If any latrine, urinal, cess-pool, drain or other receptacle for sewage or other offensive matter be defective or be constructed contrary to the directions of the Board, or contrary to the provisions of this Act or any bye-law passed under this Act ; or if any person without the consent of the Board constructs, re-builds or opens any latrine, urinal, cess-pool, drain or receptacle which has been ordered by it to be demolished or closed up or not to be made, the Board may cause such addition or alteration to be made in any such latrine, urinal, cess-pool, drain or receptacle as it think fit or may cause the same to be removed and the expenses thereby incurred shall be paid by the person by whom such latrine, urinal, cess-pool, drain or receptacle was improperly constructed, re-built or opened. (2) The person by whom such latrine, urinal, cess-pool, drain or receptacle is improperly constructed, re-built or opened shall also be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty rupees and a daily fine not exceeding five rupees during which the offence is continued. 204. Power to demolish unauthorised drains leading into public sewer :- (1) If any person, without the written consent of the Board first obtained, makes or causes to be made, or alters or causes to be altered, any drain leading into any sewer, drain, water-course, road or land vested in the Board, the Board may cause such branch drain to be demolished, altered, re-made or otherwise dealt with as it shall think fit, and the expenses thereby incurred shall be paid by such person making or altering such branch drain. (2) The person so making or altering such branch drain shall also be liable for every such offence to a fine not exceeding fifty rupees. 205. Penalty of allowing water of any sewer, etc., to run on any publicroad :- Whoever causes or allows the water of any sink, sewer, latrine, urinal, cess-pool, or any other offensive matter belonging to him or being on his land, to run, drain or be thrown or put upon any public road, or causes or allows any offensive matter to run, drain or thrown into a surface drain near any public road, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty- five rupees and a daily fine not exceeding five rupees, during which the offence is continued. 206. Power to require owner to drain land :- If any land, being within one hundred feet of a sewer, drain or other outlet into which such land may, in the opinion of the Board be drained, is not drained to the satisfaction of the Board, the Board may require the owner within one month to drain the said land into such sewer, drain or outlet. 207. Penalty for disobeying requisition under S. 201 or 206 :- Any person who fails to comply with a requisition issued by the Board under the provisions of S. 201 or 206 shall be liable for every such offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty-five rupees and a further fine not exceeding five rupees for every day during which he shall continue to make such default after service on him of such requisition. 208. Power to drain group or block of houses, etc, by a combined operation :- (1) if it appears to the Board at a meeting that a group or block of houses may be drained or improved more effectively, economically or advantageously in combination than separately, and if a sewer, drain or other outlet already exists or is about to be constructed within one hundred feet of any part of such group or block of bouses, the Board may cause such group or block of houses to be so drained and improved : and the expenses thereby incurred shall be recovered from the owners of such houses in such proportions as shall be to the Board seem fit. 209. Public health administration :- The Director of Health Services may, from time to time as occasion requires, recommend for adoption, by the Municipal Boards, such measures as may be necessary for improving the public health administration or for safeguarding the public health therein : Provided that if on account of financial or other resources, any Municipal Board is unable to carry out such measures or if there is any difference of opinion between the Municipal Board and the Director, the matter shall be referred to the State Government whose decision shall be final. 210. Inspection by Public Health Department :- (1) The Director or the Sub-divisional Medical Officer of Health, as the case may be, shall regularly but not less than twice a year inspect the different areas of the municipalities in their jurisdiction and send copies of their recorded notes to the Municipal Boards concerned and to the Director of Health Services. The Municipal Board shall consider the inspection notes at the next meeting of the Board and submit a report of the action taken or proposed to be taken to the State Government through the Director of Health Services who shall forward a copy of the report with his comments and suggestions to the State Government. (2) The Assistant Director of Public Health shall also make inspection of the municipal areas as often as is possible and his inspection reports shall be dealt with in the same manner as stated in sub-S. (1). 211. Establishments for removal of sewage, offensive matter and rubbish :- (2) Whenever an order such as is referred to in S. 214 shall have been published, no sweeper or other servant of the Board employed to move or deal with sewage, offensive matter or rubbish shall wilfully absent himself from his duties without the permission of the Board, or, unless he has given notice in writing not less than o n e month previously of his intention so to withdraw, shall withdraw from the employment of the Board without its permission. (3) Any sweeper or other such person who, after the said publication, contravenes the provisions of sub-S. (2), shall forfeit his licence and all salary which may be due to him and he shall also be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty rupees. 212. Sewerage scheme :- A Board may also introduce a sewerage scheme for removal of sewage by flushing with water through underground dosed sewers When a Board introduces such a scheme in its area the Board may, where felt necessary, with the approval of the State Government, levy additional latrine and water taxes to meet the cost and maintenance of such scheme. 213. Power to require removers of sewage to take out licence :- The Board at a meeting may make an order requiring all persons employed in the removal of sewage, offensive matter and rubbish within the limits of the municipality or any part thereof, to take out licences, and to be servants of the Board for the purpose of removing sewage, offensive matter and rubbish from premises within the said limits. 214. Removal of sewage, offensive matter and rubbish :- (1) The Board at a meeting may, from time to time, by an order published in the prescribed manner appoint the hours within which sewage and offensive matter may be removed, the manner in which the same shall be removed, as also the hours within which only any occupier of any house or land may place rubbish in a receptacle provided by the Board on or by the side of the public road. (2) The Board may provide places convenient for the deposit of sewage and offensive matter and may require the occupiers of houses to cause the same to be deposited daily or at other stated intervals in such places and may remove the same at the expense of the occupiers from any house if the occupier thereof fails to do so. (3) The Board may charge such fees as it may think fit in respect of the removal of such rubbish as is referred to in sub-S. (1), with the consent of the occupiers of any house or land, from such house or land or in respect of the removal from such public road of any rubbish which has accumulated in the exercise of a trade or business. (4) Penalty for offence under this section Any person who places or allows to place rubbish on a public road or in a receptacle provided by the Board at other than the time appointed by the Board under sub-S (2) shall, for every such offence, be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty rupees. 215. Penalty on occupier for not removing filth, etc. :- Any occupier of a house on or near a public road who keeps or allows to be kept, for more than twenty-four hours or for more than such shorter time as may be appointed by the Board otherwise than in some proper receptacle any bones, ashes, sewage or any noxious or offensive matter in or upon such house, or in any outhouse, yard or ground attached to and occupied with such house, or suffers such receptacle to be in a filthy or noxious state, or neglects to employ proper means to cleans the same shall, for every such offence, be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty rupees. 216. Penalty for throwing offensive matter on public roads, etc. :- Any person who without the permission of the Board, throws or puts, or permits his servants to throw or put, any sewage or offensive matter on any public road, or who throws or puts, or permits his servants to throw or put, any earth, rubbish, sewage or offensive matter into any sewer or drain belonging to the Board, or into any drain communicating therewith, shall be liable, for every such offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty-five rupees. 217. Powers of servants of the Board :- All servants of the Board employed for the purposes mentioned in S. 211 may, within such hours as may be fixed by the Board, enter any premises, of which the occupier or owner is liable to pay latrine-tax and do all things necessary for the performance of their duties. 218. Compost :- Where the State Government so requires, it shall be the duty of the Board to subject all offensive matter, rubbish and sewage to the process of making compost manure. For this purpose the Board at a meeting shall draw up a scheme providing sufficient trenching grounds and taking other steps as may be advised by the Agriculture Department of Government from time to time. The Local Officer of the Agriculture Department not below the rank of an Inspector, if required by the Board, may attend the meetings of the Board, when discussing this matter, to render such help as may be required by the Board in drawing up the scheme The Board at a meeting may also set up an Advisory Committee consisting of such number of members of the Board as it may think fit and may also include in the said Committee any local Agriculture Officer of the status heretofore mentioned. When the Board is required to undertake compost making it shall be the duty of the Board to see that the entire collection of offensive matter, rubbish and sewage are disposed of in no other way than in the preparation of compost manure. 219. Nuisance :- Without prejudice to the generality of the definition of the expression "Nuisance" contained in Cl. (30) of S. 3, the following shall be deemed specifically to be "nuisance' under this Act (1) any premises in such a state as to be prejudicial to health ; (2) any tank, pond, pool, ditch, gutter, water-course, water-trough, latrine, cess-pool, drain or ash-pit which is so foul or in such a state as to be prejudicial to health ; (3) any animal kept in such a place or manner as to be prejudicial to health ; (4) any accumulation or deposit of refuse or other matter which is prejudicial to health ; (5) any factory, workshop or workplace, which is not provided with sufficient means of ventilation, or in which sufficient ventilation is not maintained, or which is not kept clean or not kept free from noxious effluvia, or which is so overcrowded while work is carried on as to be prejudicial to the health of those employed therein ; (6) any fireplace or furnace which does not, as far as practicable, consume the smoke arising from the combustible used therein, and which is used for working engines by steam, or in any mill, factory, dye-house, brewery, bake-house or gas-work, or in any manufacturing or trade process whatsoever ; (7) any chimney sending forth smoke in such quantity as to be a nuisance ; and (8) any noise, vibration, dust, cinders, irritating smell or offensive odour produced by a factory, workshop or workplace which is nuisance to the neighbourhood. 220. Inspection for removal of nuisance :- Every Municipal Board shall (a) cause its local area to be inspected frequently with a view to ascertain what nuisances exist therein calling for abatement: and (b) serve the owner or occupier of the land on which the nuisance exist with notice to remove the same within such time as the Board may fix. 221. Notice to remove nuisance :- If the person on whom a notice has been served under the preceding section fails to comply with its requirements within the time specified therein or if the nuisance although abated within such time is, in the opinion of the Board, likely to recur, the Board may arrange for the execution of any works necessary to abate the nuisance or to prevent its recurrence, as the case may be, and may recover the cost from such person as if it were a tax due to the Board. 222. Complaint against nuisance :- Any person aggrieved by a nuisance in any area may give information of the same to the Board. Upon the receipt of such information the Board shall make an enquiry and if satisfied of the existence of nuisance may proceed in the manner laid down in the two preceding sections. 223. Power to prohibit use of unlicensed markets :- (1) The Board at a meeting may order that within such limits as it may fix, no land shall be used as a market otherwise than under a licence to be granted by the Board. The licence may be for one year and thereafter liable to renewal annually. 224. Penalty for using unlicensed market :- Whoever, being the owner or occupier of any land, wilfully or negligently permits the same to be used as a market without a licence under S. 223, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five hundred rupees for every such offence, and to a further fine not exceeding two hundred rupees for each day during which the offence is continued after conviction of such offence. 225. Power to close unlicensed places :- (1) A Magistrate, on the application of the Board, may order any land in respect of which a conviction shall have been obtained under the preceding section to be closed as a market place, and thereupon may make order to prevent such land being so used. (2) Every person who shall sell or expose for sale any article intended for food or drink or any live-stock or other merchandise on any land which shall have been so closed, shall be liable, for every such offence, to a fine not exceeding ten rupees. 226. Markets, slaughter-houses, etc., to be properly drained :- (1) Every owner, occupier or farmer of a market, or of an> place for the sale of meat, poultry, fish or vegetables, or of any slaughter-house, within the limits of a municipality, shall make or cause drains to be made therein as shall be considered sufficient by the Board, and if required to do so by the Board, shall cause all the floors and drains to be paved with stone or burnt brick, and cemented, and shall also cause a supply of water to be provided, sufficient for keeping such market, place or slaughter-house in a clean and wholesome state and also provide adequate ventilation, lighting of shops and stalls and passages and ways to or in such market. (2) If any such owner, occupier or farmer, after notice in writing given to him by the Board that such market, place or slaughter- bouse is defective in any of the particulars specified in sub-S. (1) and requiring him to remedy the defect specified within not less than thirty days, makes default therein, he shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty rupees for every day during which such default is continued after the expiration of the period mentioned in such notice. 227. Sale, exposing for sale, etc., of food :- Any person directly or indirectly selling, exposing for sale, hawking or manufacturing, storing or possessing for sale any adulterated food, shall be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 (Act 37 of 1954). For this purpose the Board shall appoint at least one Inspector for the areas under his jurisdiction may authorise such other persons to exercise such of the powers of an Inspector as may be prescribed by rules under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 (Act 37 of 1954). Regulation of factories, workshops, offensive trades, etc. 228. Factory, etc., not to be newly established without permission of the Board :- (1) No person shall newly establish in any premises within the municipality any factory, workshop or work place in which it is intended to employ steam, water or other mechanical power to electrical power, without previous written permission of the Board which the Board may grant with prior approval of the District or the Sub-divisional Magistrate, as the case may be. (2) The application for permission shall be accompanied by a plan of the factory, workshop, work place, and sufficient particulars as regards the power, machinery and plant. (4) Before granting approval to such permission, the District or the Sub-divisional Magistrate may obtain the opinion of the Chief Inspector of Factories and the Civil Surgeon. (5) The Board may suspend or cancel any permission granted under this section if it considers that there has been any breach in the conditions imposed. (6) Any person who establishes a factory, workshop or work place in contravention of sub-S. (1) shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five hundred rupees and to a further fine not exceeding fifty rupees for every day during which the factory workshop or work place is maintained after he has been convicted of such offence. (7) Factory dealt with in this section means a factory to which the provisions of the Factories Act, 1948 (Act LXIII of 1948), do not apply. 229. Certain offensive and dangerous trades not to be established within the limits to be fixed by the Board without licence :- (2) Such licence shall not be withheld unless the Board has reason to believe that the business which it is intended to establish pr maintain would be offensive or dangerous to persons residing in or frequenting the neighbourhood. (3) The Board at a meeting may, subject to such restrictions, if any, as it may impose, extend the provisions of this section to yards or depots for trade in coal, coke, timber or wood. (4) The grant of a licence for the purposes mentioned in Cl. (i) of sub-S. (1) shall be consistent with the provisions of the Indian Petroleum Act, 1899(Act VIII of 1899), and no such licences shall be granted unless the said provisions have been complied with by the applicant for the licence. 230. Cinemas, dramatic performances, circuses, etc. :- (3) If within a period of three months following the receipt of an application for licence under sub-S (1) or (2) of this section the Board at a meeting or the Board, as the case may be, has not passed orders thereon, either granting or refusing a licence, it shall be deemed to have granted the licence. 231. Cancellation, revocation, etc., of licences :- (1) Subject to the provisions of S. 233 any licence granted under S. 230 by the Board at a meeting, or the Board, as the case may be, may, at any time, be suspended or revoked by the authority granting the licence, if any of the restrictions, limitations, or conditions attached to the licence be evaded or infringed by the grantee, or if the grantee be convicted of a breach of any of the provisions of the Act or of any rule or bye-law made thereunder in any matter to which such licence relates, or if the grantee has obtained the same by misrepresentation or fraud. (2) When any such licence is suspended or revoked, and until such order of suspension or revocation is cancelled, or when the period for which it was granted, or the period within which application for renewal should be made has expired, whichever - expires later, the grantee shall, for all purposes of this Act or any rule or bye-law made under the Act, be deemed to be without a licence. 232. Publication of order of refusal, suspension, etc., of licences :- Every order granting, refusing, suspending, revoking, or modifying a licence under S. 230 or S. 231, as the case may be, shall be in writing, shall state the ground on which it proceeds, shall be published on the notice board of the Board's office, and shall also be served on the owner of the premises concerned within fourteen days. 233. Appeals under Ss. 230 and 231 :- Any person aggrieved by an order granting, refusing, suspending or revoking a licence under S. 230 or S. 231, as the case may be, may, notwithstanding anything containd elsewhere in this Act, appeal (a) to the State Government in the case of an order passed by the Board at a meeting ; 234. Power to order the use of slaughter houses and the carrying on of dangerous and offensive trade to be discontinued :- (2) If any person, after the expiration of the time specified in a notice issued by the Board under the provisions of sub-S. (1), uses or permits to be used the place specified in such notice in such a manner as to be a nuisance or injurious to the health of the neighbourhood, he shall be liable to a fine not exceeding two hundred rupees and to a further fine not exceeding forty rupees for each day during which the offence is continued after he has been convicted of such offence. 235. Power to prohibit private kilos :- Within such local limits as may be fixed by the Board at a meeting, no place shall, without the permission of the Board be used for the manufacture of brick, pottery, tiles or lime in a kiln, panja or clamp or by any other similar method. 236. Penalty for offences under Ss. 229, 230 and 235 :- Any person who (1) without a licence uses any place for any of the purposes specified in S. 229 or uses any place for the manufacture of bricks, pottery, tiles or lime in contravention of the provisions of S. 235 ; or (2) being a holder of a licence under S, 229 breaks any condition of such licence ; or (3) uses any place for the purposes of public cinematograghic exhibitions, dramatic performances, circuses or variety shows, or as a place of public resort for similar recreation or amusements in contravention of the provisions of S. 230 ; shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred rupees, and to a further fine not exceeding twenty rupees for every day during which the offence is continued after he has been convicted of such offence. 237. Steps to be taken on outbreak of infectious diseases :- In the event of the prevalence or threatened outbreak of any infectious disease in any municipal area, or of any unusual mortality therein, the Municipal Board concerned shall provide such staff, medicines, appliances, equipments and other things as may, in the opinion of the State Government, be necessary for the treatment of such infectious disease and preventing it from spreading. 238. Information to be given of infectious diseases :- Any person who (a) being a medical practitioner and being cognizant of the existence of any infectious or contagious diseases in any dwelling other than a public hospital, or (b) being the owner or occupier of such dwelling and being cognizant of the existence of any such disease therein, or (c) being the person in charge of or in attendance on, any person suffering from any such disease in such dwelling and being cognizant of the existence of the disease therein, fails to give information forthwith to such officer as the Board may direct, or gives false information, respecting the existence of such disease, shall be punishable with fine which may extend to fifty rupees. 239. Removal to hospital of patients suffering from infectious diseases :- In any municipality when any person suffering from any infectious or contagious disease is found to be (a) without proper lodging or accommodation, or (b) living in a Serai or other public hostel, or (c) living in a room or house which neither he nor any one, of whom he is a dependent, either owns or pays rent for, the Board, by any person authorised by it in this behalf, may, on the advice of an Assistant Surgeon I, remove the patient to any hospital or place at which persons suffering from such disease are received for medical treatment, and may do anything necessary for such removal. 240. Disinfection of building and articles :- (1) If the Board is of opinion that the cleansing or disinfecting of a building or any part thereof or of any article therein, which is likely to retain infection, will tend to prevent or check the spread of any disease, it may, by notice, require the owner or occupier to cleanse or disinfect the same in the manner and within the time prescribed in such notice. 241. Penalty for letting infected house :- Every person knowingly letting a house or other building or part of a house or building in which any person suffering from an infectious or contagious disease, had lived without having such house or other building or part thereof and all articles therein liable to retain infection disinfected thereafter to the satisfaction of the Board shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding two hundred rupees. For the purposes of this section a hotel or lodging house keeper shall be deemed to let part of his house to any person admitted as a guest into his hotel or lodging house. 242. Provision of places and appliances for disinfection :- The Board may (a) provide proper places, with all necessary attendants and apparatus for the disinfection of conveyances, clothing, bedding or other articles which have been exposed to infection, (b) cause conveyances, clothing or other articles bought for disinfection to be disinfected free of charge or subject to such charges as may be approved by it, and (c) direct any clothing, bedding or other articles likely to retain infection to be disinfected or destroyed, and shall give compensation for any article destroyed under this section. 243. Act done by person suffering from certain diseases :- Whoever, while suffering from an infectious, contagious or loathsome disease (a) makes or offers for sale any article of food or drink for human consumption or any medicine, drug or clothing, or (b) wilfully touches any such articles, medicine, drug or clothing, when exposed for sale by others, or (c) takes any part in the business of washing or carrying soiled clothes, shall be punishable with fine which may extend to twenty rupees. 244. Exposare of person suffering from infections disease :- Any person who (a) while suffering from any infectious or contagious disease wilfully exposes himself in any road, public place, shop, bazar or any place used in common by persons other than members of the family or household to which such infected person belongs, or causes or suffers himself to be carried in a public conveyance without proper precautions against spreading of the said diseases, or (b) being in charge of any person so suffering, so exposes such sufferer, or so carries or permits him to be carried in a public conveyance ; shall be punishable with fine which may extend to twenty rupees. 245. Power of entry for purposes of preventing spread of disease :- The Board may authorise any officer to enter, at any time between sunrise and sunset, after three hours' notice, into any building or premises in which any infectious or contagious disease is reported or suspected to exist, for the purposes of inspecting such building or premises. 246. Maintenance of conveyances by Board for certain purposes :- The Board may provide and maintain suitable conveyance for the free carriage of person suffering from any infectious or contagious disease or of dead bodies of persons who have died from any such disease. 247. Power to close market, tea stall, etc. :- (1) The Board may, with a view to preventing the spead of any infectious or contagieus disease, order that for a specified time, any market, tea stall or restaurant, hotel or lodging house within the municipality shall be closed, or forbid any persons to attend any such market, tea stall or restaurant, hotel or lodging-house. (2) Such order shall be publicly notified in such manner and at such places as the Board shall direct, and notice thereof shall be served on the owner, occupier or farmer of the market or the keeper of the hotel or lodging house, tea stall or restaurant. (3) After complying with the notice, the owner, occupier, or fanner of the market or the keeper of the hotel or lodging-house, tea stall or restaurant or any person interested may appeal to the Deputy Ccmmissioner. or where the Deputy Commissioner is the Chairman of the municipality, to the Commissioner of Division, if he considers the notice to be unreasonable, and the order of the Deputy Commissioner or of the Commissioner of Division, as the case may be, shall be final. (4) When an order has been notified under sub-S (2) and has not been set aside under sub-S. (3), any owner, occupier or farmer of a market or the keeper of hotel or lodging-house, tea stall or restaurant who neglects to close the market, hotel or lodging- house, tea stall or restaurant shall be liable to a fine which may extend to five hundred rupees ; and any person who attends such market, hotel or lodging-house, tea stall or restaurant in contravention of the terms of the order shall be liable to a fine which may extend to fifty rupees. 248. Power to close school :- (1) The Board may, by notice, require the managing authority of any school situated within the municipality for a specified time with a view to preventing the spread of disease or any danger to health likely to arise from the condition of the school, either to close the school, or to exclude any scholars from attendance ; and the managing authority shall comply with the notice. (2) After complying with the notice, managing authority may appeal to the Deputy Commissioner or, where the Deputy Commissioner is the Chairman of the municipality, to the Commissioner of Division, if it considers the notice to be unreasonable, and the order of the Deputy Commissioner or of the Commissioner of Division, as the case may be, shall be final. 249. Eradication of mosquitoes and prevention of their breeding :- I t shall be the duty of the Municipal Boards to undertake Public Health work and also to formulate and execute schemes to eradicate mosquitoes and to prevent their breeding within the municipal areas. 250. Establishment and maintenance of fire-brigade :- (1) For the prevention and extinction of fire, the Board at a meeting may resolve to establish and maintain a fire-brigade and to provide any implements, machinery, or means of communicating intelligence which the Board may think necessary for the efficient discharge of their duties by the brigade. (2) The Board at a meeting may recognise and aid a volunteer fire- brigade and provide for the guidance, training, discipline and conduct of the members thereof. 251. Powers of Magistrate, commissioners of Municipal Board, and other persons for suppression of fires :- (2) No person shall be liable to pay damages for any act done by him under sub-S. (1) of this section in good faith. (3) When the State Government pass an order to take over under its control the fire fighting services in a municipality, the Board shall make over the same to such authority, as the State Government may appoint in this behalf. When the fire fighting services are taken over by the State Government the concerning Board or any commissioner thereof, as the case may be, shall cease to exercise any power under S. 250 and this section and no fee under S. 68(l)(l) shall be levied with effect from the date from which the fire fighting organisation of the Board is taken over by the State Goverment unless the State Government direct that the fee shall continue to be levied and the income delivered therefrom shall be payable to the State Government after deducting reasonable collection charge as fixed by the State Government. 252. Power in respect of burial and burning places :- (1) The Board at a meeting may, from time to time out of the municipal fund, provide fitting places to be used as burial or burning grounds either within or without the limits of the municipality. (2) The Board may, by public notice, order any burial or burning ground situated within municipal limits or any municipal burial or burning ground outside such limits which is certified by the Civil Surgeon or Health Officer to be dangerous to the health of persons living in the neighbourhood, to be closed, from a date to be specified in the notice, and shall, in such a case if no suitable place for burial or burning exists within a reasonable distance, provide a fitting place for the purpose. (3) Should any person, without the permission of the Board, bury or burn or cause or permit to be buried or burnt, any corpse at any place which is not a burial or burning ground or in any burial or burning ground made or formed contrary to the provisions of this section, or after the date fixed thereunder for closing the same, he shall be punishable with fine which may extend to fifty rupees. (5) No private burial or burning ground shall be made or formed within the municipality after the commencement of this Act, without the permission in writing of the Board. 253. Burial of paupers :- The Board may, from time to time, out of the municipal fund, provide for the burial or burning of paupers, free of charge, within the limits of the municipality. 254. Powers to cause corpses to be burnt or buried according to the religious tenets of the deceased :- After the expiration of not less than twenty-four hours from the death of any person, the Board may cause the corpse of such persons to be burnt or buried and the expenses thereby incurred shall be recoverable as a debt due from the estate of such person. In every such case, the corpse shall the disposed of, so far as may be possible, in manner consistent with in. the religious tenets of the deceased. 255. Power to license fuet shope at burning grounds :- (1) The Board at a meeting may, from time to time, grant licences to persons applying for the same, for the sale at burning grounds of fuel and other articles used for the cremation of dead bodies and in case any such licence is granted shall, from time to time, prescribe a scale of rates for the sale of such articles ; and no person not so licensed shall within three hundred yards of any such burning grounds, sell or offer for sale any such fuel or other article. (2) The Board may on good and sufficient cause, revoke or withdraw any such licence, as it may think fit, and any person to whom such licence is granted, whose charges for the sale of any such article at any higher rate than the rate fixed, shall be liable to have his licence cancelled and shall be also liable to a fine not exceeding fifty rupees. 256. Powers over disorderly houses and prostitutes :- (2) Whoever contravenes an order notified under sub-S. (1) shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to eight days or with fine which may extend to fifty rupees and in the case of a continuing failure with an additional fine not exceeding five rupees for everyday after the first in regard to which be or she is convicted of having persisted in the failure. 257. Brothels :- On the complaint of the Board, or of three or more inhabitants of a municipality, that a house within the limits of the municipality is used as a brothel, or by disorderly persons of any description, to the annoyance of the inhabitants of the vicinity, or that any such house is used as a brothel in the neighbourhood of a cantonment or of an educational institution or hostel or of any place of worship, any Magistrate of the first class, having jurisdiction in the place where the house is situated, may summon the owner or tenant of the house and on being satisfied that the house is so used and that it is a source of annoyance to the neighbours or that it is in the neighbourhood of a cantonment or of an educational institution or hostel or of any place of worship, may order the owner or tenant to discontinue such use of it ; and, if he shall fail to comply with such order within five days, may impose upon him a fine not exceeding twenty-five rupees for every day thereafter that the house is so used. 258. Token for dogs and disposal of mad and stray dogs :- (1) The Board may, by public notice, require that every dog in respect of which a licence fee has been paid and registered in the books of the municipality, shall wear a collar to which shall be attached a token to be issued by the Board and may, from time to time, give notice that with effect from a date to be specified in the notice, every dog found wandering within municipality without a collar bearing such a token, will be liable to be destroyed or otherwise disposed of. (3) No damages shall be payable in respect of any dog confined, destroyed or otherwise disposed of under this section. 259. Schools :- (1) The Board shall be guided by the provisions contained in the Assam Elementary Education Act, 1962 (Assam Act XXX of 1962) and rules and orders thereunder in the discharge of their liability in respect of elementary education. (2) Subject to as aforesaid, the Board may, with its own consent, be charged by the State Government with, and made responsible for, the establishment, maintenance and management of any schools or class of schools other than basic schools, within the municipality. Subject to the approval of the State Government the Board may make grants-in-aid to any schools, whether they are under public or private management. 260. Dispensaries, hospitals, asylums, poor-houses and medical relief :- Subject to rules, the Board may (a) establish and maintain, within the municipality, dispensaries, hospitals, chest clinics, asylums and places for the reception of the sick or destitutes or contribute towards the cost of the establishment and maintenance of such institutions ; (b) with the previous sanction of the Commissioner of Division contribute such annual or other sum as may be agreed on towards the cost of the establishment or maintenance of any dispensary, hospital, asylum or place for the reception of the sick or destitute, which is situated outside the municipality, but is, or may be, ordinarily used by the inhabitants of the municipality ; (c) provide for the payment of allowances to medical practitioners for professional services rendered to the establishment employed by the Board ; (d) provide medicines or medical assistance for the poorer inhabitants of the municipality or take such measures as may appear to it to be necessary including the temporary employment o f medical practitioners during the prevalence of diseases in the municipality ; (e) provide for the payment of expenses of any of the poorer inhabitants of the municipality for journeys to and from any hospital established in any part of India for the treatment of special diseases, and of their subsistence thereat, according to such scale as may be fixed by the Commissioner of Division. 261. Maternity bouses and child welfare centres, mid wires for maternity cases and health visitors. 1) :- The Board may establish and maintain within the municipality, Maternity Houses and Child Welfare Centres or may with the previous sanction of the Government contribute annual or other sura to any institution doing maternity and child welfare works which are situated within the municipality or outside the municipality but are or may be ordinarily used by the inhabitants of the municipality. (2) The Board at a meeting may provide (a) midwives for attendance in maternity cases; and (b) health visisors to visit and inspect any premises in the municipality and to give advice to expectant mothers on their health and as to the proper nurture, care and management of young children and the promotion of hygiene. 262. Vaccination :- Every Municipal Board shall provide for the appointment, pay and management of vaccinators and inoculators and may provide for the promotion of free vaccination and inoculation in the municipal areas. 263. Registration of births and deaths :- A Municipal Board, when required by the State Government, shall provide for the registration of births and deaths within its limits in accordance with the provisions of the Assam Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1935 (Act II of 1935). 263A. Industrial undertaking :- The Board may undertake industrial programmes sponsored or aided by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission or the State Khadi and Village Industries Board, and other industries with prior approval of the State Government. CHAPTER 7 Water supply, lighting and drainage systems 264. Supply of drinking water :- (1) Every Municipal Board shall provide or arrange for the provision of a sufficient supply of drinking water for the inhabitants of the areas within its jurisdiction. (3) A Municipal Board shall also provide or arrange for the provision of sufficient supply of water for other domestic purposes or for non- domestic purposes. 265. Satisfactory system of drainage :- (1) Every Municipal Board shall, so far as the fund at its disposal may permit, provide and maintain a sufficient and satisfactory system of public drains for the effectual drainage of its local area. (2) If in the opinion of State Government any area of the municipality or part thereof should, for any special reason, be provided with a system of public drains or with other means of drainage, they may direct the Municipal Board to provide or execute, within such time as may be fixed by them in this behalf, such works as may be considered necessary by them. (3) The Board shall at all time keep in good repair all drains, cesspools and the like vested in or belonging to it. 266. Sanction of scheme by State Government :- The State Government may, on the application, in accordance with rule, of any Municipal Board at a meeting, or of any such Board acting conjointly with any ore or more of the local authorities specified in S. 40, sanction a scheme for a water supply or for introduction of a system of lighting by electricity or otherwise or for the supply of gas or of a system of drainage or sewerage. 267. Publication of scheme :- Before any scheme or a joint scheme for any of the purposes mentioned in S. 226 is sanctioned by the State Government there shall be published in the official Gazette and locally the following particulars : (a) a general description of the scheme ; (b) an estimate of the cost of carrying it out and its maintenance ; (c) source from which the cost will be met; and (d) the amount of loan, if any, proposed to be taken. 268. Scheme to be carried out by municipalities :- When a scheme has been sanctioned under S. 266, the Municipal Board or any of the other local authorities concerned or a joint- committee constituted under S. 49, shall, if the tax and other moneys to be collected, received or recovered for or in respect of the supply of water or the lighting, drainage or sewerage system, be sufficient for the purpose, proceed to carry it out, or cause it to be carried out. 269. State Government may appoint an officer to execute the works :- T h e State Government may order the works specified in any scheme as aforesaid, or any portion thereof to be executed by an officer to be appointed by it, and may fix the remuneration of such officer ; and may specify a period within which the work shall be completed and may extend such period from time to time as may be necessary. General provisions relating to the laying and connecting of pipes, sewers and the like 270. Power of Board to lay or carry wires, pipes, drains, or sewers, through private land subject to payment of compensation for damage sustained provided that no nuisance is created :- The Board may carry any wire, pipe, drain, sewer or channel of any kind for the purpose of providing or of carrying out and establishing or maintaining a system of water supply, lighting, drainage or sewerage, through, across, under or over any road, place laid out as or intended for a road, and after giving reasonable notice in writing to the owner and occupier, into, through, across, under, over or up the side of any land or building whatsoever situated within the limits of the municipality and for the purpose of introduction, distribution or outfall of water or for the removal or outfall of sewerage, without such limits, and may at all times do all acts and things which may be necessary or expedient for repairing or maintaining any such wire, pipe, drain, sewer or channel, as the case may be, in an effective state for the purpose for which the same may be used or intended to be used : Provided that no nuisance more than is necessarily caused by the proper execution of the work is created by any such operation ; and Provided further, that reasonable compensation shall be paid to the owner or occupier or both for any damage at the time sustained by him or them and directly occasioned by the carrying out of any such operations. 271. Provisions as to wires, pipes, drains or sewers laid or carried above surface of ground :- In the event of any wire, pipe, drain, sewer or channel being laid or carried above the surface of any land or through, over, or up the side of any building such wire, pipe, drain, sewer or channel, as the case may be, shall be so laid or carried as to interfere as little as possible with the rights of the owner or occupier to the due enjoyment of such land or building and reasonable compensation shall be paid in respect of any substantial interference with any such right to such enjoyment. 272. Previous notice to be given :- Except as otherwise provided the Board shall cause not less than fourteen days' notice in writing to be given to the owner or occupier before commencing any operations under S. 270. 273. Power to permit connections with main :- (1) Subject to rule, the Board may on application of the owner or occupier of any premises, make, or cause or permit to be made, any connection to such premises from any wire, pipe, drain, sewer or channel constructed or maintained by or vested in the Board, on such terms as the Board at a meeting may from time to time determine. (2) Any person who shall, without the permission of the Board, make or cause to be made, any such connection or flush, draw off, divert, take or use water or gas from any works belonging to, or under the control of the Board, or divert or take water from any water or stream by which waterworks belonging to, or under the control of the Board, are supplied shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred rupees. 274. Power to make or require connections in certain cases :- In municipalities to which the provisions of this section may, at any time, by notification, be extended by the State Government, the Board may establish any connection from any drain or sewer to any premises, or may by notice require the owner or occupier of any such premises to establish any such connection, in such manner and within such time as the Board by notice in that behalf may prescribe, at the cost of such owner or occupier. 275. Power to prescribe size of ferrules and to establish meters and the like :- The Board may prescribe the size of the ferrules to be used for the supply of gas and water, and may establish meters or other appliances for the purpose of testing the quantity or quality of any gas supplied to the premises of any person or to or for the use of any person or business. 276. Communication and connections to be made subject to inspection by and to the satisfaction of the Board :- All works in connection with the ferrules, communication-pipes, connections, meters, stand-pipes and all fittings thereon or connected therewith, leading from mains or service wires, pipes, drains, sewers or channels into any house or land, and the wires, pipes, fittings and works inside any such house or within the limits of any such land shall, in all cases be executed subject to the inspection and to the satisfaction of the Board. 277. Connections may be made by Boards own agency :- The Board may require such ferrules, communication-pipes, connections, meters, stand-pipes and fittings to be supplied and fitted by its own agency upon such terms as may be agreed upon between it and the person requiring the connection or subject to such charges as may be fixed by the Board ; and may require the amount necessary for the execution of such works to be paid or deposited before such works are executed. 278. Power to enter premises :- (1) Any officer authorised in that behalf by the Board may, between the hours of seven in the forenoon and five in the afternoon, enter into any house or land for the purpose of inspecting or repairing gas, water, or other installations, and for taking readings of meter connections therewith. 279. Presumption as to correctness of meter :- Whenever water or gas is supplied under this Chapter through a meter, it shall be presumed that the quantity or quality indicated by the meter has been consumed until the contrary is proved, 280. Testing of meter :- (1) If the owner or occupier of any premises to which water or gas is supplied through a meter desires to have the meter tested, he may send a written application to the Board, and sush application must be accompanied by a fee of five rupees. (2) Upon receipt of any such application and fee, the Board shall forthwith cause such meter to be tested, at a time and place to be specified in a notice to be served upon such owner or occupier. (3) If such meter is found, upon being so tested, to be incorrect by more than two per cent the said fee shall be returned to tke person who sent it. 281. Penalty for fraud in respect of meter :- (2) The existence of artificial means under the control of the consumer for causing any such alteration, prevention, obstruction or use shall be evidence that the consumer has fraudulently effected the same. 282. Penalty for injuring meter :- Any person who shall wilfully or negligently injure or suffer to be injured any meter or any of the fittings of any meter shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred rupees. 283. Estimate and. specificatipn of works to be sent :- No works for establishing any such connection as. is referred to in S. 273, shall be commenced by the owner without sending a specification and estimate of the cost thereof to the. occupier, nor by the occupier without sending such specification and estimate to the owner. 284. Owner to bear the cost of keeping works ip repair :- Except in the case of a special agreement to the contrary, the owner of any, premises shall bear the expense of keeping any such connection with such premises as is referred to in Ss. 273 and 274 and all works connected therewith in substantial repair and if he fails to do so the occupier may, after giving the owner three days' notice in writing, himself have the, repairs executed and deduct the expenses thereof from any rent which is due from him to the owner in respect of such premises : Provided that nothing in this section shall affect the liabilities of parties under leases executed previous to the commencement of this Act, 285. Board to provide water-supply :- (1) In any municipality in respect of which a scheme for a supply of water has been sanctioned under S. 226 and in which the imposition of a water-tax has been sanctioned by State Government under S. 68, sub-S. (1) (b), the Board shall provide a supply of water within the limits of the municipality for domestic purposes ; and for this purpose it shall be lawful for it to cause such main and pipes to be laid, and such tanks, reservoirs or other works to be made and constructed, as shall be necessary for the supply of water in the chief public roads ; and it may also erect in all such roads sufficient and convenient stand-pipes or pumps for the use of the inhabitants of the municipality for domestic purposes. (2) The Board may supply water for other than domestic purposes. 286. Pressure at wbicb water must be kept :- The Board at a meeting shall determine what pressure of water shall be maintained in its service-pipes and mains, and during what hours such pressure shall be continued ; and any order made under this section shall not be published in such manner as the Board may direct, and shall not be altered except with the sanction of the Board at a meeting. 287. Provision for water-meter :- (1) The Board may provide a water-meter and attach it to the communication-pipe of any premises to which water is supplied by the Board, and whenever a water-meter is provided the Board shall maintain it in an efficient state. (2) When any meter attached to the communication pipe of any premises is out of order or under repair, the Board shall forthwith replace it by another meter. (3) The expense of providing, attaching and replacing a meter under sub-Ss. (1) and (2) may, at the discretion of the Board, be borne by the municipal fund, or may be recovered wholly or in part from the person requiring the supply, or, if the communication pipe has been laid down before the commencement of this Act, from the owner of the premises, except in the case of special agreement to t h e contrary between the owner and the occupier, in one instalment or more than one instalment according as the Board thinks proper : and if the expense as aforesaid or any part of it is borne by the municipal fund, the Board may recover rent for the meter at such rate as may be fixed by it. 288. House holder entitled to certain supply of water for domestic use :- (1) The Board at a meeting may determine what quantity of water shall be supplied for domestic purposes to the occupier of any premises free of further charge for every rupee paid to the Board as water tax on account of such premises. (2) Any water which may be used for domestic purposes over and above the quantity to which the occupier is entitled as aforesaid, and any water which may be used for other than domestic purposes, shall be paid for by him at such rate as the Board at a meeting may determine. 289. Power to provide water for latrines :- It shall be at the option of the Board to provide water for all latrines and water closets, and it shall be lawful for it to require that all latrines and water closets supplied, with water shall be provided with a cistern of such size and description as the Board shall direct, and all such cisterns shall be put up at the cost of the owner of premises so supplied with water. 290. Power to turn off water :- (2) When the water has been turned off under sub-S. (1) (b) the Board shall restore the supply on payment of sums for non- payment of which the water was turned off together with the expenses incurred in turning off the water or on the removal of the defects referred to in Cls. (c) and (d) of sub-S. (1) for which the water was turned off. 291. Penalty for causing waste of water :- (1) The occupier of any premises, in which water supplied by the Board under this Chapter is, from negligence or other circumstances under the control of the said occupier, wasted, or in whose house or land the pipes, works, fitting, or meters for the supply of water shall be found to be out of repair to such an extent as to cause waste of water, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty rupees. (2) Any person otherwise causing waste of water supplied by the Board shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five rupees. 292. Power to allow person outside the town to take water :- It shall be within the discretion of the Board to allow any person not residing within the limits of the municipality to take or be supplied with water for domestic use, on such terms as the Board at a meeting may from time to to time determine : and any person taking or causing to be taken for use, outside the limits of the municipality, water supplied by the Board without the permission of the Board, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty rupees. CHAPTER 8 Control 293. Control by Commissioner, etc. :- The Commissioner of Division, the Deputy Commissioner, the Director of Municipal Administration, the Sab-Divisional Officer or any other officer specially appointed by the State Government by general or special order, may at all time (ii) call For and inspect any book or document which may be, for the purpose of this Act, in the possession or under the control of the Board. 294. Inspection of works and registers by commissioners :- With the previous sanction of the Chairman any commissioner of a Board may inspect any work, or institution, constructed or maintained, in whole or in part at the expense of the Board and any register, books, accounts or other documents belonging to, or in the possession of the Board. 295. Inspector of Municipal Works :- (1) The State Government may appoint an officer of the Government to be Inspector of Municipal Works for one or more municipalities. (2) The Inspector of Municipal Works shall perform such duties and exercise such powers as may be assigned to him by rule. (3) In particular and without prejudice to the powers referred to in sub-S. (2), the Inspector of Municipal Works may at all times enter upon or into and inspect, or cause any other person to enter upon or into and inspect, any immovable property in the occupation, or any work in progress, under the orders of the Board of any municipality within his charge, and the Board shall furnish such statement, estimates and reports as he may require. (4) A report of every inspection made under tbis section shall be prepared, and a copy thereof shall be forwarded to the Board. (5) The Board, within the charge of an Inspector of Municipal Works, shall, in all matters of professional detail, be guided by his report. 296. Power to suspend action under the Act :- Tne State Government, the Commissioner of Division, the Deputy Commissioner, the Director of Municipal Administration, the Additional Deputy Commissioner or the Sub-divisional Officer-in- charge of a sub-division may, by order in writing, suspend the execution of any resolution or order of the Board or prohibit the doing of any act which is about to be done or is being done, in pursuance of, or under cover of, this Act, or in pursuance of any sanction or permission granted by the Board in the exercise of their powers under this Act, if in its or his opinion, the resolution, order or act militates aginst the fundamental rights conferred by Part III of the Constitution of India and the State policy on the directive principles laid down in Part IV of the Constitution of India is in exercise of the powers conferred by law, or the execution of the resolution or order, or the doing of the act, is likely to lead to a serious breach of the peace, or to cause serious injury or annoyance t o the public or to any class or body of persons. When the Commissioner of Division or the Deputy Commissioner, the Director of Municipal Administration, the Additional Deputy Commissioner or the Sub-divisional Officer in-charge of a sub-division makes any order under this section, he shall forthwith forward a copy thereof, with a statement of his reasons for making it, to the State Government, which may thereupon rescind the order or direct that it continues in force with or without modification, permanently or for such period as it thinks fit. 296A. Control over proceedings of Municipal Boards :- (1) The State Government, the Commissioner of Division, the Deputy Commissioner and the Director of Municipal Administration, shall see that the proceedings of the Municipal Boards are in conformity with law. 297. Powers of State Government in case of default, and of Deputy Commissioner ip case of emergency etc. :- (1) If at any time, on receipt of a complaint or information, it appears to the State Government that the Board have made default in performing any duty imposed on them by or under this or any other Act, the State Government may, by an order in writing, call upon the Board to perform the duty within such time as may be appointed by such order. (2) If such duty is not performed within such period, the State Government may, after considering any representation which the Board may submit, either revoke or modify the order or appoint some fit and proper person to perform the duty. (3) If, in any case of emergency, the Deputy Commissioner, upon the recommendation of the concerning technical adviser immediately available in the district within which the municipality is situated, is of opinion that the immediate execution of any work or the immediate doing of any act which the Board, whether at a meeting or otherwise, are empowered to execute or do, is necessary for the health or safety of the public, he may call upon the Board to execute the work within such time as he may appoint. If such work is not executed within such period he may appoint some fit and proper person to execute the work or do the act immediately. The Deputy Commissioffer shall forthwith report to the Commissioner of Division every case in which he uses the powers conferred on him by this sub-section whereupon the Commissioner of Division may pass such orders as he thinks fit. (4) Where any person is appointed under sub-S. (2) or sub-S. (3), the State Government or, subject to any order which may be passed by the Commissioner of Division under sub-S. (3), the Deputy Commissioner with the prior approval of the Commissioner o f Division may direct that the expanse of performing the duty, executing the work or doing the act, together with reasonable remuneration, if any, to the person so appointed, shall forthwith be paid by the Board. 298. Power to dissolve the Board in case of incompetence, defaults or absue of power :- If in the opinion of the State Government, any Board is not competent to perform or persistently makes default in the performance of the duties imposed on the Board by or under this Act or otherwise by law or exceeds or abuses its power or in the event of failure On the part of the Board to provide such services as the State Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare to be essential services, the State Government, after giving the Municipal Board a reasonable opportunity of being heard may, by notification stating the reasons for so doing, declare such Board to be incompetent or in default or to have exceeded or abused its power, as the case may be, and dissolve the Board and hold election within a period of six months from the date of dissolution. 299. Consequences of dissolution :- When an order of dissolution has been passed under S. 298, the following consequences shall ensue : (a) all commissioners of the Board shall, as from the date of the order of dissolution, vacate their offices as such commissioners ; (c) all properties vested in such Board shall, during the period of dissolution, vest in the State Government. 300. Disputes :- (2) Save as provided in sub-S. (4) the decision of the authority to any dispute if referred under this section shall be final. (3) If, in the case mentioned in Cl. (a), the Deputy Commissioner is a member of one of the local authorities concerned, bis functions under this section shall be discharged by the Commissioner of Division concerned. (4) An appeal shall lie to the Commissioner Of Division concerned against a decision of the Deputy Commissioner and to the State Government against a decision of the Commissioner of Division concerned. (5) Where a cantonment authority is a party to a dispute, the powers of the State Government under this section shall be exercisable only with the concurrence of the Central Government. CHAPTER 9 Rules and Bye-laws Rules 301. Power of State Government to make rules :- (1) The State Government may make rules for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Act. (3) In making rules under Cl. (i) of sub-S. (2) the State Government may direct that a breach of any rule, so far as it prohibits corrupt practice at elections, shall be punishable with a fine npt exceeding five hundred rupees. (4) All rules made under this section shall be subject to the condition of previous publication. 302. Power to make bye-laws :- The Board may, from time to time, at a meeting which shall have been convened expressly for the purpose, and of which due notice shall have been given, frame such bye-laws as they deem fit, not being inconsistent with this Act, or with any other general or special law, for (i) regulating traffic, and preventing obstructions and encroachments and nuisance on or near public roads, or on or near pontoon bridges, ghats, landing places, river banks or other places of public resort or on places near water works for the supply of drinking water ; (ii) prescribing a minimum width of wheel-tyres or a minimum diameter and the maximum wheel tracks of wheels for different classes of carts and carriages kept or used within the municipality ; (iii) prescribing the manner in which notice of the intention to erect, re-erect or materially alter a building shall bo given to the Board ; (vi) preventing the erection of buildings without adequate provisions being made for the laying out and location of roads ; (vii) regulating the level, means of drainage, alignment and width of roads constructed by private persons ; (ix) regulating the use of, and the prevention of nuisance in regard to public water-supply, bathing and washing places, streams, channels, tanks and wells ; (x) regulating either by rendering licences necessary or otherwise, the washing of clothes by professional washermen, and fixing the places in which clothes may be so washed or in which they may not be so washed ; (xi) prescribing the measures to be taken for the prevention of the breeding of mosquitoes in wells, tanks, pools, excavations, cisterns or other places or vessels containing or capable of containing water : (xii) regulating the cutting of trees and bamboos within the municipality ; (xiii) defining the duties of persons employed in the removal of sewage within the municipality and required to take out licences under S. 213 ; (xiv) regulating the disposal of sewerage, offensive matter, carcasses of animals and rubbish, and the construction and maintenance of latrines, urinals, cesspools, drains and sewers ; (xv) providing for the inspection and regulation of markets and for the preparation and exhibition of a price list thereat ; (xvi) regulating the hours and manner of transport within the municipality of any specified article of food or drink ; (xvii) fixing the places in which any specified article of food or drink may be sold or exposed for sale or the places in which it may not be sold or exposed for sale ; (xviii) regulating, either by redering licences necessary or otherwise, the import into the municipality for sale of milk and butter ; (xix) regulating either by rendering licences necessary or otherwise, or prohibiting, for the purpose of preventing danger to the public health, the stalling or herding of horses, cattle, swine, donkeys, sheep or goats, gees, ducks and fowls ; (xx) providing for the inspection of milch cattle, and prescribing the measures to be taken on the occurrence amongst them of infectious or contagious diseases ; and prescribing and regulating the construction, dimensions, ventilation, lighting, cleansing, drainage and water-supply of dairies and cattle-sheds in the occupation of persons following the trade or dairymen or milk-sellers ; (xxi) providing for the inspection and proper regulation of encamping grounds, pounds, sarais, bakeries and aerated water factories, ice-factories, flour mills, oil mills, sweetmeat shops, factories, and other places in which mechanical or electrical power is employed, and slaughter houses : (xxii) preventing nuisance affecting the public health, safety, or convenience in places of public resort for purposes of recreation or amusement ; (xxiii) preventing nuisance affecting the public health, safety or convenience ; (xxiv) providing for the guidance, discipline and conduct of the members of a volunteer fire-brigade recognised by the Board ; {xxv) controlling and regulating the use and management of burial and burning ground and the disposal of corpses ; (xxvi) providing for the inspection of weights and measures used in markets within the municipality ; (xxvii) providing for the holding of fairs and industrial exhibitions within the municipality or under the control of the Board and for fixing and collecting the fees to be levied thereat ; (xxviii) fixing the conditions on which licences under this Act are to be granted and may be suspended or revoked ; (xxix) preventing and removing any encroachments on any municipal lands including markets, drains, etc. ; and (xvii) of this section by reason of exposure for sale of any article in any premises which are at the time of the making of such bye- law used for such purpose until he has received from the Board six months' notice in writing to discontinue such exposure for sale in such permises. 303. Additional powers to make bye-laws in hill municipalities :- (2) The Board may, by any bye-law made under this section, declare that any person committing a breach of any such bye-laws, or failing to comply with any notice issued thereunder, shall be liable to a fine which may extend to fifty rupees and to a further fine which may extend to twenty rupees for each day after conviction during which the offence is continued. 304. Confirmation of bye-laws :- (1) The power to make bye-laws under this Act shall be subject to the condition of previous publication. (2).No such bye-law shall come into force until it has been confirmed by the State Government. (3) The State Government may cacel the confirmation of any such by-law and thereupon the bye-law shall cease to have effect. 305. Publication of bye-laws :- Every bye-law shall, after confirmation, be published in the prescribed manner. 306. Power to make rules as to business and affairs :- (2) Rules made under this section consistent with the Act shall be subject to the sanction of the State Government and shall, if sanctioned. be published in such manner as the State Government may direct and shall have the force of law. (3) The rules in the Second Schedule shall have effect as if enacted in the body of this Act until annulled or altered by roles made upder sub, CHAPTER 10 Procedure Municipal notice 307. How notice, etc., may be served :- (1) Every notice, bill, form, summons or notice of demand under this Act may be served personally on or presented to the persons to whom the same is adressed ; or if he left his usual place of abode, with some adult male member or servant of his family ; or if, it cannot be so served, presented or delivered, may be put on some conspicuous part of his place of abode, or of the land, or of the land, building or other thing in respect of which the notice, bill, form, summons or notice of demand is intended to be served or may be sert by post in a registered cover. 2) Every such notice, bill, form, summons or notice of demand shall be signed by or bear a facsimile signature of the Chairman, Vice- Chairman or any other officer authorised by the Chairman in that behalf, 308. Reasonable time for compliance to be fixed :- When any notice under this Act requires any act to be done for which no time is fixed by this Act, the Board shall fix a reasonable time for doing the same. 309. Service of notice on owner or occupier of land :- When any notice is required to be given to the owner or to the occupier, or the owner and occupier of any land, such notice, addressed to the owner or occupier or both, as the case may require, may be served on the occupier of such land, or otherwise in the manner mentioned in S- 307 : Provided that when the owner and his place of abode are known to the Board or other authorities issuing the notice, they shall, if such place of abode be within the limits of their authority, cause such notice required to be given to the owner of any land to be served on such owner, or left with some adult male member or servant of his family, and if the place of abode of the owner be not within such limits, they shall send every such notice by post in a registered cover addressed to his place of abode, and such service shall be deemed to be good service of the notice ; Provided further that when the name of the owner or occupier or both is not known, it shall be sufficient to designate him or them as "the owners" or the "occupier" of the land in respect of which the notice is served. 310. Procedure when owners or occupiers are required by Board to execute works :- Whenever it is provided in this Act that the Board at a meeting may require the owners or the occupiers, or the owners and occupiers of any land to execute any work or to do anything, such requisition shall be made, as far as possible, by a notice to be served as provided in Ss. 307 and 309 on every owner or occupier who is required to execute such work-or to do such thing ; but if thereby any doubts as to the persons who are owners or occupiers, such requisition may be made by a notice to be posted up on or near the post at which the work is required to be executed or the thing done, requiring the owners or the occupiers, or the owners and occupiers of any land, to execute such work or to do such thing within a specified time, and in such notice it shall not be necessary to name the owners of occupiers. Every requisition as aforesaid shall give notice to the persons to whom it is addressed that if they fail to comply with the requisition or to prefer an objection against such requisition as provided in the next succeeding section the Board will enter upon the land and cause the required work to be executed or the required thing to be done ; and that in such case the expenses incurred thereby will be recovered from the persons who are required in such requisition to execute such work or do such thing. 311. Persons required to execute any work may prefer objection to the Board :- Any person who is required by a requisition as aforesaid to execute any work or to do anything may, instead of executing the work or doing the thing required prefer an objection in writing to the Board against such requisition within five days of the service of the notice of posting up of the notification containing the requisition, or, if the time within which he is required to comply with the requisition be less than five days, then within such less time. Except as provided in the next succeeding section such objection shall be heard and disposed of by the Chairman or Vice-Chairman. 312. Procedure If person objecting alleges that work will cost more than three hundred rupees :- If the objection shall allege that the cost of executing the work or of doing the thing required will exceed three hundred rupees, such objection shall be heard and disposed of by the Board at a meeting ; unless the Chairman or Vice-Chairman shall certify that such cost will not exceed three hundred rupees, in which case the objection shall be heard and disposed of by the Chairman and Vice-Chairman : Provided that in any case in which the Chairman or Vice-Chairman shall have certified his opinion as aforesaid, and the objection shall in consequence thereof have been heard and disposed of by the Chairman and Vice-Chairman, the person making the Objection may, if the requisition made upon him is not withdrawn on the hearing of his objection, pay in the said sum of three hundred rupees to the Board as the cost of executing the work or doing the thing required ; whereupon such person shall be relieved of all further liability and obligation, in respect of executing the work or doing the thing required and in respect of paying the expenses thereof and the Board itself shall execute such work or do such thing, and shall exercise all powers necessary therefor. 313. Chairman. etc., to make order after hearing objection :- The Chairman or Vice-Chairman, or the Board at a meeting, as the case may be, shall, after hearing the objection and making any inquiry which they may deem necessary, record an order withdrawing, modifying, or making absolute the requisition against which the objection is preferred ; and if such order does not withdraw the requisition it shall specify the time within which the requisition shall be carried out, which shall not be less than the shortest time which might have, been mentioned under this Act in the original requisition, 314. Order to be explained orally :- If the person making such objection be present at the office of the Board, the said order shall be explained to him orally, and if such order cannot be so explained, notice of such order shall be served as provided in S. 307 on the person making the objection ; and such explanation of, or service of, the notice of the said order shall be deemed a requisition duly made under this Act to execute the work or do the thing required. 315. Power of Board on failure of persons to execute work :- If the person or persons required to execute the work or to do the thing fail, within the time specified in any requisition as aforesaid, to begin to execute such work or to do such thing, and thereafter diligently to execute the same to the satisfaction of the Board until it is completed, the Board or any person authorised by it in that behalf, may, after giving forty-eight hours notice of its intention by a notification to be posted upon or near the spot, enter upon the land and perform all necessary acts for the execution of the work or doing of the thing required, and the expenses thereby incurred shall be paid by the owners or by the occupiers if such requisition was addressed to the owners or to the occupiers, respectively, and by the owners and the occupiers if such requisition was addressed to the owners and the occupiers. 316. Power to apportion expenses among owners and occupiers :- (1)Whenever any expenses incurred by the Board are to be paid by the owners of any land as provided in the preceding section, the Board may, if there be more than one owner, apportion the said expenses among such of the owners as are known in such manner as to the Board may seem fit. (2) Whenever any such expenses are to be paid by the occupiers of any land as provided in the preceding section the Board may, if there be more than one occupier, apportion the said expenses among such of the occupiers as are known in such manner as to the Board may seem fit. 317. Appointment among owners and occupiers :- Whenever any expenses incurred by the Board are to be paid by the owners and occupiers of any land, as provided in S. 315, the Board may apportion the said expenses among the said owners and occupiers or such of them as are known in such manner as to the Board may seem fit. 318. Occupier may recover cost of works executed at bis expence from owner :- Whenever any works or alterations and improvements, of which the Board is authorised by the Act to require tie execution, are executed by the occupier on the requisition of the Board or are executed by the Board and the cost thereof is recovered from the occupier, the cost thereof may, if the Board certify that such cost ought to be borne by the owner, be deducted by such occupier from the next and following payments of his rent due or becoming due to such owner, or may be recovered by him in any Court of competent jurisdiction. 319. Power to enter upon possession of bouses so repaired :- If the Board, under the provisions of this Act shall have caused any repairs to be made to any house or other structure, and if such house or other structure be unoccupied, the Board may enter upon possession of the same, and may retain possession until the sum expended by it on the repairs be paid to it. 320. Sale of materials of bouses etc , pulled down :- The material or anything which shall have been pulled down or removed under the previsions of S. 310 may be sold by the Board, and the proceeds of such sale may be applied, so far as the same will extend, to the payment of the expenses incurred. The surplus sale proceeds, if any, shall be credited to the municipal fund, and may be paid on demand to any person who establishes bis right to the satisfaction of the Board or in a Court of competent jurisdiction. 321. Appeals from orders of Board :- (2) The appellate authority may, for sufficient cause, extend the period allowed by sub-S. (1) of this section for appeal. 322. Appeals from orders refusing licences :- Any person aggrieved by an order refusing a licence or permission required under this Act, may, notwithstanding anything contained elsewhere in this Act, within thirty days from the date of refusal, appeal to the State Government or an officer authorised by the State Government in that behlf whose decision shall be final and shall not be questioned in any Court. 323. Board may direct prosecution for public nuisance etc. :- T h e Board may direct any prosecution for any public nuisance under the Indian Penal Code (Act XL V of 1860), and may order proceedings to be taken for the recovery of any penalties under this Act or rules or bye-laws made thereunder and for the punishment of any person offending against the same, and may order the expense of such prosecution or other proceedings to be paid out of the municipal fund. 324. No prosecution for an offence under this Act to be instituted without consent of Board :- No prosecution for an offence under this Act or any rule or bye-law made in pursuance thereof shall be instituted without the order or consent of Board, and no such prosecution shall be instituted except within three months next after the commission of such offence, unless the offence is continuous in its nature, in which case a prosecution may be instituted within six moths of the date on which the commission or existence of the offence was first brought to the notice of the Chairman of the Board : Provided that the failure to take out any licence under this Act shall be deemed to be a continuing offence until the expiration of the period for which such licence is required to be taken out. 325. Police officer to report offences and arrest persons refusing to give name and residence :- (1) All police officers shall give immediate information to the Board of the municipality of any offence committed against the Act or any rule or bye-law made in pursuance thereof. When any person, in the presence of the police officer, commits or is accused of committing any such offence, and refuses, on demand of a police officer, to give his name and residence, or gives a name or residence which such officer has reason to believe to be false, he may be arrested by such officer in order that his name or residence may be ascertained, and he shall within twenty-four hours from the arrest, be forwarded to the nearest Magistrate, unless before the expiration of that time his true name and residence are ascertained, in which case he shall be released on his executing a bond for his appearance before a Magistrate, if so required. (2) Any servant of the Board in receipt of a salary of not less than thirty rupees per mensem, when empowered in that behalf, on the recommendation of the Board, by a general or special order of the District Magistrate, may exercise the powers of a police officer under this section. 326. No action to be brought against the Board or their officers until after one months notice of cause of action :- (1) No suit or other legal proceeding shall be brought against any Board or any of its officers, or any person acting under its direction for anything done under this Act or any rule or bye law made thereunder, until the expiration of one month next after notice in writing has been delivered or left at the office of such Board and also (if the suit is intended to be brought against any officer of the said Board or any person acting under its direction) at the place of abode of the person against whom such suit or proceeding is threatened to be brought stating the cause of suit or proceeding, the nature of the relief sought, the amount of compensation claimed and the name and place of abode of the person who intends to bring the suit ; and unless such notice be proved, the Court shall find for the defendant. (2) Every such action shall be commenced within three months next after the accrual of the cause of action, and not afterwards. (3) If the Board or its officers, or any person to whom any such notice is given shall, before the suit is brought, tender sufficient amends to the plaintiff, such plaintiff shall not recover. 327. Liability to pay expenses or fees may be contested in Civil Court :- Any owner or occupier of land may contest his liability to pay any expenses or fee under this Chapter or under Chapters VI and VII or may contest the amount which he has been called upon to pay in a Civil Court of competent jurisdiction: Provided that the fact of such action having been instituted shall be no bar to the recovery of the said amount in the manner provided by S. 149. 328. Dispute as to compensation payable by Board :- (1) Should a dispute arise the amount of compensation which the Board is required by this Act to pay, it shall be settled in such manner as the parties may agree, or, in default of agreement, by the Deputy Commissioner or any officer authorised by him in that behalf upon application made to him by the Board or the person claiming compensation. (2) Any decision of the Deputy Commissioner or the officer as aforesaid awarding compensation shall be subject to a right, of the applicant for compensation to require a reference to the District Judge in accordance with the procedure set forth in S. 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (1 of 1894). (3) In cases in which compensation is claimed in respect of land the Deputy Commissioner or the officer as aforesaid and the District Judge shall, as far as may be, observe the procedure prescribed by the said Act for proceeding in respect of compensation for the acquisition of land acquired for public purposes. CHAPTER 11 Miscellaneous provisions 329. Delegation of certain powers and functions of State Government :- (1) The powers and functions of the State Government specified in Ss. 58, 65, 71, 263 and 337 may be delegated by the State Government to the Commissioner of Division. (2) In regard to powers or functions delegated to him under this section, the Commissioner of Division shall have the same authority as is given by this Act to the State Government and the delegation shall continue until revoked by the State Government. (3) A delegation under this section may be of all or any of the powers and functions aforesaid, and may be made generally in regard to all the municipalities or it may be made particularly in regard to certain municipalities only. (4) The delegation may be by official designation, and shall, in each case, be notified in the Gazette. 330. Survey of municipalities :- The Board at a meeting may order that a survey shall be made of the lands situated in the municipality and thereupon all the provisions of the Calcutta Survey Act, 1887 (1 of 1887) shall, so far as may be practicable, apply and be extended to such municipality. 331. Holder of licence to produce it when required :- Every person to whom a licence has been granted under this Act shall, at all reasonable times, while such licence shall remain in force, if so required by the authorities which granted the licence or by any person authorised by them in that behalf, produce such licence to the said authorities or to the person so authorised. Whoever fails to produce his licence when required to produce the same by any person authorised under this section to demand the production thereof, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred rupees. 332. Suspension or revocation of licences, etc. :- Any Magistrate before whom any person is convicted of an offence contrary to the provisions of this Act, relating to the use of any place for a purpose for which a licence is required or of the non- observance of any of the bye-laws relating thereto made under this Act in addition to the fine which may be imposed on such person under this Act, may suspend for any period not exceeding two months, any such licence. And the Board upon the conviction of any person for a second or other subsequent like offence, may cancel his licence. 333. Penalty on officers, etc asking unauthorised fees :- If any person employed under this Act [not being a public servant within the meaning of S. 21 of the Indian Penal Code (XLV of 1960)] shall accept or obtain, or agree to accept or attempt to obtain, from any person for himself or for any other person, any gratificaion whatever, other than legal remuneration, as a reward for doing or for bearing to do any official act, or for showing or bearing to show, in the exercise of his official functions, favour or disfavour to any person or for rendering or attempting to render, any service or disservice to any person within the Board or with any public servant or with any Government servant in the discharge of his official duties, be shall be punished with imprisonment either simple or rigorous, as provided in S. 53 of the Indian Penal Code (XLV of 1860) for and term which may extend to three years, or with a fine not exceeding five hundred rupees, or with both. CHAPTER 12 Small town 334. Constitution of notified area :- (1) The State Government may by notification signify its intention to declare that with respect to some or all of the matters upon which a municipal fund may be expended under S. 60 improved arrangements as required within a specified area, which nevertheless, it is not expedient to constitute as a municipality. (2) A copy of the notification under sub-S. (1) shall be published in such places as the State Government may, by general or special order, direct. (3) Should any inhabitant of the specified area aforesaid desire to object to the notification issued under sub-S. (1), he may within six week from the date of its publication, submit his objection in writing to the State Government, through the Deputy Commissioner, and the State Government shall take his objection into consideration. (4) When six weeks from the date of publication have expired, and the State Government has considered and passed orders on such objection as may have been submitted to it, the State Government may, by notification, declare the specified area aforesaid or any portion thereof to be a notified area to be termed as Small Town. 335. Constitution of Town Committee :- (1) There shall be established for each of the area notified under S. 334 (1) (defined as transitional area in Art. 243 of the Constitution of India) a committee for the purposes of Cls. (a) and (b) of sub-S. (1) of S 336 consisting of such number of members as may be fixed by the State Government from time to time. (2) A committee established under this section shall be called a Town Committee. (3) The State Government may appoint any person, whether a member of the town committee or not, to be its Chairman or Vice- Chairman, or may authorise any town committee to elect its Chairman or Vice-Chairman or both, and fix the term of office of member or Chairman or Vice-Chairman of the towm committee. 336. Power of State Government to impose taxation and regulate expenditure of proceeds thereof and to extend provisions of the Act to notifiedareas :- (2) The proceeds of any tax levied in any notified area under this section shall be expended only in some manner in which the municipal fund of such notified area might be expended if the notified area were a municipality. (3) For the purposes of any section of this Act which may be expended to a notified area, or which applies to the notified areas automatically, the Town Committee constituted for such an area under S. 335 shall be deemed to be a Municipal Board under this Act, the notified area to be a municipality and the member to be a commissioner. 337. Application of funds of areas ceasing to be notified :- When by reason of any order cancelling a notification under S. 334 any notified area ceases;to be notified the unexpended proceeds of any taxes levied therein under S. 336 shall be applied for the benefit of the inhabitants of such area in such manner as the State Government may think fit. SCHEDULE 1 SCHEDULE OMITED[***] SCHEDULE 2 Business and procedure at first meetings [See Section 306] SECOND SCHEDULE Business and procedure at first meetings [See Section 306] (1) The first meetings of a Municipal Board after a general election shall be held on such date as the Deputy Commissioner or Sub-divisional Officer, as the case may be, may fix : Provided that (a) whenever he considers necessary, be may vary the original or any subsequent date so fixed ; and (b) the date fixed for the meetiag shall be notified in the Gazette at least 15 clear days before the meeting. (2) The Deputy Commissioner or Sub-divisional Officer, as the case may be, shall cause copies of the notification fixing the date of the first meeting as required by R. (1) to be sent to the members at least seven days before the meeting is held. (3)The Magistrate shall appoint a member of the Board to preside at the meeting and may whenever he considers necessary vary the original or any subsequent order of appointment ; provided always that (he person appointed is not a candidate for the office of the Chairman. (4)The President shall first make the oath (or affirmation) prescribed by S. 25 himself and then administer the Oath (or affirmation) to the other members present whether there is a quorum or not. (5) (i) The meeting shall thereupon proceed to elect, or request the State Government to appoint a Chairman : Provided that the quorum required by S. 46 (v) is present. (ii) If the quorum required by S. 46 (v) is not present or if the first meeting for any reason proves infructuous, the meeting shall stand adjourned to some future date to be appointed by the Magistrate, who Shall cause at least three days' notice of the adjourned meeting to be given to the members ; the members present at the adjourned meeting shall form a quorum whatever their number may be and shall be competent to proceed to elect a Chairman. (6) At any time before noon of the day preceding the date fixed for the meeting under R. (1) any member may nominate any other member, not being an officer of Government appointed under sub-S. (2) of S. 11 of the Act, for election as Chairman, by delivering to the Magistrate or to any other officer appointed by the Magistrate in this behalf a nomination paper signed by himself as proposer and by a third member as seconder and stating (a)the name of the member nominated ; and (b)that the proposer has ascertained that such person is willing to serve as Chairman if elected. (7)If and when the meeting proceeds to select a Chairman, the President shall read out to the Board the names of tbe members who have been duly nominated together with those of their proposers and seconders and if only one member has been so nominated, shall declare that member to be elected ; if more than one member has been so nominated, the meet ing shall proceed to elect a Chairman by ballot. (8)Where more than two candidates have been nominated and at the first ballot no candidate obtains more votes than the aggregate votes obtained by the other candidate, the candidate who has obtained the smallest number of votes shall be excluded from the election and balloting shall proceed, the candidate obtaining the smallest number of votes at each ballot being excluded from the election until one candidate obtains more votes than the remaining candidate or than the aggregate votes of the remaining candidates as the case may be. (9)Where at any ballot any of the three or more candidates obtain an equal number of votes and one of them has to be excluded from the election under R. the determination as between the candidate whose votes are equal to the candidate who is to be excluded shall be by the drawing of lots. (10) In these rules, "Magistrate" means (a)in the case of a municipality in a sub-division, the Sub-divional Magistrate ; and (b)in other cases, the District Magistrate. SCHEDULE 3 Form of Nomination [See Section 41] THIRD SCHEDULE Form of Nomination [See Section 41] Whereas the meeting of the Municipal Board/Town Committee is scheduled to be held on for the election of the Chairman of (he Municipal Board/Town Committee, and whereas Vice-Chairman of the Municipal Board/Town Committee is likely to be a candidate for the office of the Chairman and/or has intimated in writing his inability to preside over the meeting ; I, therefore, nominate Shri/Shrimati a commissioner of the Municipal Board/Town Committee to preside over the said meeting. In case the Vice-Chairman does not become a candidate for the office of the Chairman, or express willingness to preside over the meeting thus nomination will automatically be inoperative. Furthermore, in the event of Shri/Shrimati (the commissioner nominated) becoming himself a candidate for the office of the Chairman, this nomination will automatically be inoperative. Deputy Commissioner Sub-Divisional Officer Strike out which does not apply.