Municipal prosecution requires valid delegation and strict statutory initiation; an unauthorised complaint is jurisdictionally defective.

A municipal prosecution was examined on two linked questions: whether the Health Officer's earlier special delegation to sanction and institute complaints remained in force despite later general administrative orders, and whether section 537 of the Calcutta Municipal Act, 1923 required strict compliance with the statutory mode of initiation. The majority treated the special delegation as continuing, but held that section 537 formed part of the mandatory prosecution machinery and could not be bypassed by an unauthorised complaint. On that reasoning, initiation without a duly authorised statutory complaint was jurisdictionally defective, so the conviction and sentence could not stand.

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Issues: (i) Whether the Health Officer had a valid and subsisting delegation to sanction and institute the prosecution on the date of the complaint; (ii) Whether section 537 of the Calcutta Municipal Act, 1923 permitted initiation of proceedings otherwise than in the manner prescribed by the Act.

Issue (i): Whether the Health Officer had a valid and subsisting delegation to sanction and institute the prosecution on the date of the complaint.

Analysis: The relevant municipal orders showed an earlier special delegation to the Health Officer to order prosecution and sign prosecution sheets in matters concerning the Health Department. A later general order delegating powers to departmental officers until the election of the new Board was construed as dealing with general administrative delegation and not as cancelling the earlier special delegation. The later revocation order affecting the Health Department did not displace the existing special delegation on the record. In the absence of evidence of any fresh order abolishing that special authority, the complaint could not be treated as having been filed without delegated power.

Conclusion: The Health Officer was held to have continued authority under the special delegation, so far as the majority opinion was concerned.

Issue (ii): Whether section 537 of the Calcutta Municipal Act, 1923 permitted initiation of proceedings otherwise than in the manner prescribed by the Act.

Analysis: The majority treated section 537 as a provision which, though expressed in permissive language, was intended to operate as part of the statutory machinery for municipal prosecutions and legal proceedings. Read with the scheme of the Act, including the provisions dealing with municipal prosecution and cognizance, the section was held not to be a mere enabling provision open to disregard. If private complaints or unauthorized complaints were accepted as sufficient, the section would be rendered ineffective. The absence of a proper complaint was therefore regarded as affecting the initiation of proceedings and not as a mere curable irregularity.

Conclusion: Section 537 was held to require compliance with the statutory mode of initiation, and the complaint was invalid if not filed by a duly authorized authority.

Final Conclusion: The majority held that the prosecution had not been validly initiated in accordance with the municipal law, with the result that the conviction and sentence could not stand.

Concurring Opinion: M. Hidayatullah, J. disagreed on the delegation issue. The dissent viewed the earlier special delegation as continuing and unaffected by the later general order, and therefore considered the Health Officer competent to file the complaint. On that view, the appeal should have been dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a municipal statute requires prosecution to be instituted through a duly authorised statutory channel, a complaint filed without valid delegation from the competent municipal authority is jurisdictionally defective and cannot sustain a conviction.

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