Statutory repeal and modified incorporation: adapted municipal provision in Howrah survived later repeal and sustained conviction.

Section 38 of the West Bengal Fire Services Act, 1950 did not repeal section 386 of the Calcutta Municipal Act, 1923 as modified and extended to Howrah. The Court held that the Howrah provision was an adapted text, not the unmodified Calcutta provision, and therefore remained in force because the later repeal did not expressly or by necessary implication apply to the modified form. The municipal licence requirement therefore continued to operate in Howrah, and the respondent's conviction under the municipal law was sustained, although the sentence was not enhanced.

---

---

Issues: Whether section 38 of the West Bengal Fire Services Act, 1950 repealed section 386 of the Calcutta Municipal Act, 1923 as modified and extended to the Municipality of Howrah, so as to bar the levy of licence fees and sustain the respondent's conviction under section 488 of the Calcutta Municipal Act.

Analysis: The municipal provisions applicable to Howrah were not the unmodified text of section 386 of the Calcutta Municipal Act, 1923, but that provision as extended by notification and altered by substitution of the word "Commissioners" for "Corporation". The later Fire Services Act repealed section 386 only in the form in which it operated for Calcutta and the corresponding provision for ordinary municipalities, and did not expressly or by necessary implication reach the modified provision applicable to Howrah. A provision incorporated with modification into another statutory scheme is not displaced by an amendment or repeal of the original provision unless the later enactment clearly applies to the adapted text.

Conclusion: Section 38 of the West Bengal Fire Services Act, 1950 did not repeal section 386 as modified and applied to the Municipality of Howrah; the respondent remained liable for the municipal licence requirement and conviction, though the sentence was not enhanced.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statutory provision is extended to a local area with textual modification, a subsequent repeal of the original provision does not affect the adapted provision unless the later enactment expressly or by necessary implication applies to the modified form.

---