The Cantonments’ Act, 1924 (II of 1924)

Updated: Saturday July 18, 2020/AsSabt Thoul Ki'dah 28, 1441/Sanivara Asadha 27, 1942, at 04:25:34 PM

The Cantonments’ Act, 1924

ACT No. II of 1924

[16th February, 1924]

An Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to the administration of cantonments.

WHEREAS it is expedient to consolidate and amend the law relating to the administration of cantonments;

It is hereby enacted as follows:‑--

CHAPTER I PRELIMINARY

1.‑(1) This Act may be called the Cantonments Act, 1924.

(2) It extends to the whole of Pakistan.

(3) The Central Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, direct that this Act, or any provisions thereof which it may specify, shall come into force on such dated as it may appoint in this behalf.

2. In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context;----

(i) "Assistant Health Officer" means the medical officer appointed by the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, to be the Assistant Health Officer for a cantonment;

(ii) "Board" means a Cantonment Board constituted under this Act;

(iii) "brigade area" means one of the brigade areas, whether occupied by a brigade or not, into which Pakistan is for military purposes for the time being divided, and includes for all or any of the purposes of this Act any area which the Central Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare to be a brigade area for such purpose or purposes ;

(iv) "building" means a house, outhouse, stable, latrine, shed, but or other roofed structure whether of masonry, brick, wood, mud, metal or other material, and any part thereof, and includes a well and a wall (other than a boundary wall not exceeding eight feet in height and not abutting on a street) but does not include a tent or other portable and temporary shelter ;

(v) omitted, ibid.

(vi) omitted by the Cantonments (Arndt.) Ordinance, 1960 (38 of 1960), s. 2 (with effect from the 16th May, 1960).

(vii) "casual vacancy" means a vacancy occurring otherwise than by efflux of time in the office of an elected member of a Board ;

(viii) "Command" means one of the Commands into which Pakistan is for military purposes for the time being divided, and includes any area which the Central Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare to be a Command for all or any of the purposes of this Act;

(ix) omitted by Act 12 of 1935, s. 2 and 1st Sch.

(x) "dairy" includes any farm, cattle‑shed, milk‑store, milk‑shop or other place from which milk is supplied or in which milk is kept for purposes of sale or is manufactured for sale into butter, ghee, cheese or curds, and, in relation to a dairyman who does not occupy any premises for the sale of milk, includes any place in which he keeps the vessels used by him for the storage or sale of milk ;

(xi) "dairyman" includes the keeper of a cow, buffalo, goat, ass or other animal, the milk of which is offered or is intended to be offered for sale for human consumption, and any purveyor of milk and any occupier of a dairy ;

(xia) "elected member" means the Chairman of a Union Committee in a cantonment who has become a member of the Board under Article 12 of the Basic Democracies Order, 1959 ;

(xib) "entitled consumer" means a person in a cantonment who is paid from the Defence Services Estimates and is authorised by general or special order of the Central Government to receive a supply of water for domestic purposes from the Military Engineer Services or the Public Works Department on such terms and conditions as may be specified in the order ;

(xii) "Executive Engineer" means the Public Works Officer of that grade, or the officer of the Military Engineer Services of the corresponding grade, having charge of the military works in a cantonment or where more than one such officer has charge of the military works in a cantonment such one of those officers as the Officer Commanding the Station may designate in this behalf, and includes the officer of whatever grade in immediate executive engineering charge of a cantonment ;

(xiii) "Executive Officer" means the person appointed under this Act to be the Executive Officer of a cantonment ;

(xiv) "Health Officer" means the senior executive medical officer in military employ on duty in a cantonment;

(xv) omitted by Act 24 of 1936, s. 2.

(xvi) "hut" means any building, no material portion of which above the plinth level is constructed of masonry of squared timber framing or of iron framing;

(xvii) "infectious or contagious disease" means cholera, leprosy, enteric fever, small‑pox, tuberculosis, diphtheria, plague, influenza, venereal disease, and any other epidemic, endemic or infectious disease which the Central Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare to be an infectious or contagious disease for the purposes of this Act ;

(xviii) "inhabitant", in relation to a cantonment, or local area, means any person ordinarily residing or carrying on business or owning or occupying immoveable property therein, and in case of a dispute means any person declared by the District Magistrate to be an inhabitant ;

(xix) "intoxicating drug" means opium, ganja, bhang, charas and any preparation or admixture thereof, and includes any other intoxicating substance, or liquid which the Central Government, may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare to be an intoxicating drug for the purposes of this Act ;

(xx) "market" includes any place where persons assemble for the purpose of selling meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, live‑stock or any other article of food ;

(xxa) "Military Estates Officer" means the officer appointed by the Central Government to perform the duties

of the Military Estates Officer under rules made under clauses (a) and (b) of sub‑section (2) of section 280 ;

(xxi) "Military officer" means------

(a) a person who, being an officer within the meaning of the Army Act or the Indian Army Act, 1911 or the Pakistan Army Act 1952, or the Air of Force Act, or the Indian Air Force Act, 1932 or the Pakistan Air Force Act, 1953 is commissioned and in pay as an officer doing military or air force duty with the military or air forces of Pakistan, or is an officer doing such duty in any arm, branch or part of those forces ; or

(b) a person doing military or air force duty as a warrant officer with either of those forces or with any arm, branch, or part thereof, whether he is or is not an officer within the meaning of the Army Act or the Indian Army Act, 1911 or the Pakistan Army Act, 1952, or the Air Force Act, or the Indian Air Force Act, 1932 or the of Pakistan Air Force Act, 1953;

(xxii) "nuisance" includes any act, omission, place or thing 1932 which causes or is likely to cause injury, danger, annoyance or offence to the sense of sight, smell or hearing, or which is or may be dangerous to life or injurious to health or property ;

(xxiii) "occupier" includes an owner in occupation of, or otherwise using his own land or building ;

(xxiv) "Officer Commanding the District" means the Officer Commanding any one of the districts into which Pakistan is for military purposes for the time being divided, or any brigade area which does not form part of any such district, or any area which the Central Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare to be such a district for all or any of the purposes of this Act ;

(xxiva) "Officer Commanding the station" means the military officer for the time being in command of the forces in a cantonment, or, if that officer is the Officer Commanding the District or Officer Commanding‑in Chief, the Command, the military officer who would be in command of those forces in the absence of the Officer Commanding the District and Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command ;

(xxvi) "owner" includes any person who is receiving or is entitled to receive the rent of any building or land whether on his own account or on behalf of himself and others or an agent or trustee, or who would so receive the rent or be entitled to receive it if the building or land were let to a tenant ;

(xxvii) "party wall" means a wall forming part of a building and used or constructed to be used for the support or separation of adjoining buildings belonging to different owners, or constructed or adapted to be occupied by different persons ;

(xxviii) "private market" means a market which is not maintained by a Board and which is licensed by a Board under the provisions of this Act ;

(xxix) "private slaughter‑house" means a slaughter‑house which is not maintained by a Board and which is licensed by a Board under the provisions of this Act ;

(xxx) "public market" means a market maintained by a Board;

(xxxi) "public place" means any place which is open to the use and enjoyment of the public, whether it is actually used or enjoyed by the public or not ;

(xxxii) "public slaughter‑house" means a slaughter‑house maintained by a Board;

(xxxiia) a person is deemed to reside in a cantonment if he maintains therein a house or a portion of a house which is at all times available for occupation by himself or his family even though he may himself reside elsewhere, provided that he has not abandoned all intention of again occupying such house either by himself or his family ;

(xxxiii) "shed" means a slight or temporary structure for shade or shelter ;

(xxxiv) "slaughter‑house" means any place ordinarily used for the slaughter of animals for the purpose of selling the flesh thereof for human consumption ;

(xxxv) "soldier" means a person who is a soldier or airman within the meaning of the Army Act or the Air Force Act, or is subject to the Indian Army Act, 1911 the Pakistan Army Act, and who is not a 1911.

military officer ;

(xxxvi) "spirituous liquor" means any fermented liquor, any wine, or any alcoholic liquid obtained by distillation or the sap of any kind of palm tree, and includes any other liquid containing alcohol which the Central Government, may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare to be a spirituous liquor for the purposes of this Act ;

(xxxvii) "street" includes any way, road, lane, square, court, alley or passage in a cantonment, whether a thoroughfare or not and whether built upon or not, over which the public have a right‑of‑way and also the road‑way or foot‑way over any bridge or causeway ;

(xxxviii) "vehicle" means a wheeled conveyance of any description which is capable of being used on a street, and includes a motor‑car, motor lorry, motor omnibus, cart, locomotive, tram‑car, hand‑cart, truck, motor‑cycle, bicycle, tricycle and rickshaw ;

(xxxix) "water‑works" includes all lakes, tanks, streams, cisterns, springs, pumps, wells, reservoirs, aqueducts, water‑trucks, sluices, mains, pipes, culverts, hydrants, stand‑pipes, and conduits, and all machinery, lands, buildings, bridges and things, used for, or intended for the purpose of, supplying water to a cantonment; and

(xi) "year" means the year commencing on the first day of July.

CHAPTER II DEFINITION AND DELIMITATION OF CANTONMENTS

3.‑(1) The Central Government, ,may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare any place or places in which any part of the regular forces or the regular air force of Pakistan is quartered or which, being in the vicinity of any such place or places, is or are required for the service of such forces to be a cantonment for the purposes of this Act and of all other enactments for the time being in force, and, may, by a like notification, declare that any cantonment shall cease to be a cantonment.

(2) The Central Government, may, by alike notification, define the limits of any cantonment for the aforesaid purposes.

(3) When any place is declared a cantonment for the first time, the Central Government may, until a Board is constituted in accordance with the provisions of this Act, by order make any provision which appears necessary to it either for the administration of the Cantonment or for the constitution of the Board.

(4) The Central Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, direct that in any place declared a cantonment under sub‑section (1) the provisions of any enactment relating to local self‑government other than this Act shall have effect only to such extent or subject to such modifications, or that any authority constituted under any such enactment shall exercise authority only to such extent, as may be specified in the notification.

4.‑(1) The Central Government, may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare its intention to include of limit of within a cantonment any local area situated in the vicinity cantonments thereof or to exclude from a cantonment any local area comprised therein.

(2) Any inhabitant of a cantonment or local area in respect of which a notification has been published under sub‑section (1), may, within six weeks from the date of the notification, submit in writing to the Central Government through the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, an objection to the notification, and the Central Government shall take such objection into consideration.

(3) On the expiry of six weeks from the date of the notification, the Central Government may, after considering the objections, if any, which have been submitted under subsection (2), by notification in the official Gazette, include the local area in respect of which the notification was published under sub‑section (1), or any part thereof, in the cantonment or, as the case may be, exclude such area or any part thereof from the cantonment.

5. When, by a notification under section 4, any local area is included in a cantonment, such area shall thereupon become subject to this Act and to all other enactments for the time being in force throughout the cantonment and to all notifications, rules, regulations, bye‑laws, orders and directions issued or made thereunder.

6.‑(1) When, by a notification under section 3, any cantonment ceases to be a cantonment and the local area comprised therein is immediately placed under the control of a local authority, the balance of the cantonment fund and other property vesting in the Board shall vest in such local authority, and the liabilities of the Board shall be transferred to such local authority.

(2) When, in like manner, any cantonment ceases to be a cantonment and the local area comprised therein is not immediately placed under the control of a local authority, the balance of the cantonment fund and other property vesting in the Board shall vest in Government, and the liabilities of the Board shall be transferred to the Central Government.

7.‑(1) When, by a notification under section 4, any local area forming part of a cantonment ceases to be under the control of a particular Board and is immediately placed under the control of some other local authority, such portion of the cantonment fund and other property vesting in the Board and such portion of the liabilities of the Board, as the Central Government may, by general or special order, direct, shall be transferred to that other local authority.

(2) When, in like manner, any local area forming part of a cantonment ceases to be under the control of a particular Board and is not immediately placed under the control of some other local authority, such portion of the cantonment fund and other property vesting in the Board shall vest in Government, and such portion of the liabilities of the Board shall be transferred to the Central Government, as the Central Government may, by general or special order, direct.

8. Any cantonment fund or portion of a cantonment fund or other property of a Board vesting in Government under the provisions of section 6 or section 7 shall be applied in the first place to satisfy any liabilities of the Board transferred under such provisions to the Central Government, and in the second place for the benefit of the inhabitants of the local area which has ceased to be a cantonment or, as the case may be, part of a cantonment.

9. The Central Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, exclude from the operation of any part of this Act the whole or any part of a cantonment, or direct that any provision of this Act shall, in the case of any cantonment in which the Board is superseded under section 54, apply with such modifications as may be so specified.

CHAPTER III CANTONMENT BOARDS

Boards

10. For every cantonment there shall be a Cantonment Board and an Executive Officer.

11. Every Board shall, by the name of the place by reference to which the cantonment is known, be a body corporate having perpetual succession and a common seal with power to acquire and hold property both moveable and immoveable and to contract and shall, by the said name, sue and be sued.

12.‑(1) The Executive Officer of every cantonment shall be appointed by the Central Government, or by such person as the Central Government may authorise in this behalf, from Officers appointed to the Pakistan Military Lands and Cantonments Service;

Provided that an Executive Officer appointed before the commencement of the Cantonments (Amendment) Act, 1952, shall, unless the Central Government otherwise directs in any case, be deemed to have been duly appointed in accordance with this sub‑section.

(2) Not less than half the cost of the salary of the Executive Officer and a proportionate share of his leave salary and pension contribution shall be paid to the Central Government from the cantonment fund;

Provided that the salary of an Executive Officer appointed before the commencement of the Cantonments (Amendment) Act, 1952, shall, until the Central Government otherwise directs, continue to be paid from the source from which it was being paid at the commencement of the said Act.

(3) The Executive Officer shall be the Principal Executive Officer of the Cantonment Board and the Secretary of the Board and of every committee of the Board, but shall not be a member of the Board or of any such committee. He shall have the right to take part in the discussions but not to move any proposals at the meetings of the Board and of the Committees.

13.‑(1) Cantonments shall be divided into three classes, namely :‑----

(i) Class I Cantonments, in which the civil population exceeds ten thousand ;

(ii) Class II Cantonments, in which the civil population exceeds two thousand five hundred, but does not exceed ten thousand ; and

(iii) Class III Cantonments, in which the civil population does not exceed two thousand five hundred;

(2) For the purposes of sub‑section (1), the civil population shall be calculated in accordance with the latest official census, or, if the Central Government, by general or special order, so directs, in accordance with a special census taken for the purpose.

13A.‑‑(1) In Class I Cantonments, the Board shall consist of the following members, namely :‑----

(a) the Officer Commanding the station or, if the Central Government so directs in respect of any cantonment, such other civil or military officer as may be nominated in his place by the Officer Commanding‑in-Chief, the Command ;

(b) the elected members ;

(d) the Health Officer ;

(e) the Executive Engineer ;

(f) four civil or military officers nominated by the Officer Commanding the station by order in writing;

Provided that if the total number of elected members in any such cantonment were less than seven, the number of members so nominated shall be as many less than four as the total number of elected members be less than seven.

(2) In Class II Cantonments, the Board shall consist of the following members, namely

(b) the elected members;

(d) the Health Officer;

(e) the Executive Engineer;

(f) three civil or military officers nominated by the Officer Commanding the station by order in writing;

Provided that if the total number of elected members in any such cantonment were less than six but not less than three, the number of members so nominated shall be as many less than three as the total number of elected members be less than six;

Provided further that if the total number of such elected members be less than three, no Magistrate shall be nominated under clause (c) in cases where such members are two, and in other cases the Board shall be constituted as in a Class III Cantonment.

(3) In Class III Cantonments, the Board shall consist of the following members, namely:‑-----

(b) the elected member;

(4) The Officer Commanding the station may, if he thinks fit, with the sanction of the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, nominate in place of any civil or military officer whom he is empowered to nominate under clause (f) of sub‑section (1), clause (f) of sub‑section (2) or clause (c) of sub‑section (3), any person, whether in the service of the State or not, who is ordinarily resident in the cantonment or in the vicinity thereof.

(5) The name of every elected or nominated member of the Board, and every vacancy in the membership thereof, shall be notified by the Central Government in the official Gazette.

14.‑(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in section 13A, if the Central Government is satisfied‑----

(a) that, by reason of military operations it is necessary, or

(b) , that, for the administration of the cantonment, it is desirable, to vary the constitution of the Board in any cantonment under this section, the Central Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, make a declaration to that effect.

(2) Upon the making of a declaration under sub‑section (1), the Board in the cantonment shall consist of the following members, namely :‑----

(a) the Officer Commanding the station ;

(b) one military officer nominated by name by the Officer Commanding the station by order in writing;

Provided that in its application to the Wah Cantonment this sub‑section shall be read as if in clause (a), at the end thereof, the words "or, if the Central Government so directs, any civil or military officer nominated by the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief of the Command" were added, and in clause (b) for the words "military officer" the words "civil or military officer" were substituted.

(3) Every nomination of a member of a Board constituted under this section, and every vacancy in the membership thereof, shall be notified by the Central Government in the official Gazette.

(4) The term of office of a Board constituted by a declaration under sub‑section (1) shall not ordinarily extend beyond one year;

Provided that the Central Government may from time to time, by a like declaration, extend the term of office of such a Board by any period not exceeding one year at a time;

Provided also that the Central Government shall forthwith direct that the term of office of such a Board shall cease if, in the opinion of the Central Government, the reasons stated in the declaration whereby such Board was constituted, or its term of office was extended, have ceased to exist.

(5) When the term of office of a Board constituted under this section has expired or ceased, the Board shall be replaced by the former Board which, but for the declaration under sub‑section (1), would have continued to hold office, or, if the term of office of such former Board has expired, by a Board constituted under section 13A.

15.‑(1) The term of office of a member of a Board shall be five years and shall commence, in the case of an elected member, from the date on which the Union Committee of which he is the Chairman assumed office under Article 22 of the Basic F Democracies Order, 1959, and in the case of every other member, from the date of the notification of his nomination under subsection (5) of section 13A, or from the date on which the vacancy has occurred in which he is nominated, whichever be later.

(2) The term of office of an ex‑officio member of a Board, not being an elected member, shall continue so long as he holds the office in virtue of which he is such member.

(3) The term of office of an elected member who fills a casual vacancy shall commence from the date of his election, and shall continue so long only as the member in whose place he is elected would have been entitled to hold office if the vacancy had not occurred.

(4) An outgoing member shall, unless the Central Government otherwise directs, continue in office until the election or nomination of his successor is notified under sub‑section (5) of section 13A.

(5) An outgoing nominated member may, if qualified, be re-nominated.

15-A. Electoral rolls:--- In every ward, an electoral roll showing the names of Muslims, and in every cantonment for which the number of seats for minority communities has been fixed under sub‑section (4) of section 13A, an electoral roll showing the names of non Muslims, qualified to vote at elections to the Board shall be pre pared on the basis of the electoral rolls pertaining to that cantonment prepared under section 4 of the Electoral Rolls Act, 1974

15-B. Qualifications and disqualifications of members‑(1) A person who is not less than twenty‑one years of age on the first day of January preceding the election shall be qualified to be elected as a member of a Board if his name appears for the time being on the electoral roll of the ward from which he seeks election and he is not subject to any disqualification for being elected as, and for being, a member of, a Board.

(2) A person shall be disqualified for being elected as, and for being a member of, a Board if he

(a) has ceased to be a citizen of Pakistan or has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a foreign state or has made a declaration of allegiance or adherence to a foreign state ;

(b) is an undischarged insolvent ;

(c) has been ordered to execute a bond under section 110 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, or as, on conviction for an offence involving moral turpitude, been sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than six months, unless five years or such less period as the Federal Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, specify in this behalf, have elapsed from the date of the expiration of the period of the bond or sentence, as the case may be ;

(d) is a whole‑time salaried official in the service of Government or of a public statutory corporation, a corporation under the control of Government, a Board or a local body or other local authority ;

(e) is under contract for work to be done or goods to be supplied to the Board to which he seeks election or has otherwise any pecuniary interest in its affairs ;

(f) fails to take oath of membership of the Board or to declare his properties as required under this Act ; or

(g) is for the time being disqualified for the membership of an elective body under any law for the time being in force.

15-BB.-( Ins. by the cantonments (Second Amdt.) Ordinance, 1979 (46 of 1979), ) (1) No person contesting election to a Board shall, directly or indirectly,‑

(a) give himself out as a candidate or nominee or a political party ;

(b) claim, draw or receive any financial of other assistance from any political party for the purposes of the election;

(c) bear, display or carry any document, sign, insignia., flag or any other thing indicating the association with, or affiliation to, a political party ;

(d) seek the votes or sympathies of the people on party basis or on the basis of the manifesto of any political party ; or

(e) seek the votes or support of the people by attributing direct or indirect party affiliations to any of his opponents

(2) Whoever‑

(a) is found by the President of the Board to have contravened the provisions of sub‑section (1) shall stand disqualified for being a candidate for election to a Board for a

period of four years ; or

(b) having been elected as a member of a Board is found by the President of the Board to have contravened the provisions of sub‑section (1) shall cease forthwith to hold the office of such member and stand disqualified from being a candidate for election to a Board for a period of four years.]

15-C.Electoin of members ---(1) Elected members, except those representing women, workers and peasants, shall be elected 6y direct election on the basis of adult franchise in the manner prescribed by rules made under this Act.

(2) Elected members representing women, workers and ‑peasants shall be elected by members elected under sub‑section (1) in the manner prescribed by rules made under this Act.

(3) The Muslims enrolled on the electoral rolls for a ward showing the names of Muslims shall, in accordance with the rules made under this Act, from time to time elect from amongst themselves a person to be a member of the Board.

(4) In a cantonment in the Board of which a seat is reserved for the minority communities, the persons belonging to the minority communities enrolled on the electoral roll for the cantonment showing the names of non‑Muslims shall, in accordance with the rules made under this Act, from time to time elect from amongst themselves a person to be a mamber of the Board.

15-D. Conduct of elections-----All elections to a Board. shall be organised and conducted in accordance with the rules made under this Act and such rules may provide for all matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, including the time of. holding the elections, by‑elections, corrupt or illegal practices and other election offences and penalties therefor and the submission, trial and disposal of election petitions.

15-E.Term of office of members‑.(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, a member of a Board shall hold office for a period of four years from the date of the notification of his election or nomination or from the date on which the vacancy has occurred in which he is elected or nominated, whichever be later

Provided that, notwithstanding the expiry of his term, such member shall continue to function as a member until the election or, as the case may be, nomination of his successor is notified under sub‑section (5) of section 13A.

(2) The term of office of an ex‑oivio member of a Board ah211 continue so long as he holds the office by virtue of which be is such member.

(3) The term of office of an elected member who fills a casual vacancy shall commence from the date of his election and shall continue so long only as the member in %vhose place he is elected whould have been entitled to holn office if the vacancy had not occurred.

15-G.Removal of nominated member------‑Where the Officer Commanding the station makes a report to the effect that any nominated member, being a civil or military officer, is unable to discharge his duties for any reason, the Federal Government may, by order in writing, relieve such member of his office.

15-H.Casual vacancy in the office of nominated member------‑(1) Every casual vacancy occurring, in the office of a nominated member shall forthwith be reported to the Federal Government which shall, by notification in the official Gazette, declare the occurrence of such vacancy.

(2) A casual vacancy in the office of a nominated member shall be filled for the remainder of the term of such member by nominating another person in his place in the same manner in which such member was nominated. ' '~"~

15-I. Declaration of property--------- Every elected member shall, before entering upon office submit to an officer authorised by the Federal Government in this behalf, and in such manner as the Federal Government may direct, a declaration in writing of properties, both movable and immovable, whether within or outside Pakistan or any member of his family owns, or has in his possession or under his control, or in which he or any member of his family has any beneficial interest.

Explanation.‑For the purposes of this section, the expression "member of his family" in relation to a person, includes‑

(a) the spouse of such person, and

(b) such of the children, parents, brothers and sisters as reside with and are wholly dependent upon such person.

16 and 17. [Filling of vacancies. Vacancies in special cases.] Omitted by the Cantonments (Amdt.) Ordinance, 1960 (XXXVIII of 1960), s. 7 (with effect from the 16th May, 1960).

CHAPTER III CANTONMENT BOARDS

18. (1) Every elected member, and every person who is by virtue of his office, or who is nominated to be, a member of a Board shall, before taking his seat, make at a meeting of the Board an oath or affirmation of his allegiance in the following form, namely :---‑

I, . . . . . . . . having become/been nominated/ a member of this Board, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will bear true faith and allegiance to Pakistan and that I will faithfully discharge the duty upon which I am about to enter.

(2) If any such person fails to make the oath or affirmation within such time as the Central Government considers reasonable, the Central Government shall, by notification in the official Gazette, declare his seat to be vacant.

19.‑(1) Any nominated or elected member of a Board who wishes to resign his office may forward his resignation in writing through the President of the Board to the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, who shall forward it for orders to the Central Government.

(2) If the Central Government accepts the resignation, such acceptance shall be communicated to the Board, and thereupon the seat of the member resigning shall become vacant.

20.‑(1) The Officer Commanding the station, or the civil or military officer nominated in his place under section 13A, shall be the President of the Board.

(2) In every Board in which there is more than one elected member, there shall be a Vice‑President elected by the elected members only from amongst their number in accordance with such procedure as the Central Government may by rule prescribe.

21.‑ (1) Unless he resigns his office under sub‑section (2) or is removed under sub‑section (3), the term of office of a Vice‑President shall be five years or the residue of his term of office as a member, whichever is less.

(2) A Vice‑President may resign his office by notice in writing to the President and, on the resignation being accepted by the Board, the office shall become vacant.

(3) A Vice‑President may be removed from his office by the Central Government at any time during the term of his office if a no‑confidence motion is passed against him by a two‑third majority of the elected members of the Board at a meeting specially convened for this purpose, and on such removal the office shall become vacant.

(2) A Vice‑President may resign his office by notice in writing to the President and, on the resignation being accepted by the Board, the office shall become vacant.

22.‑(1) It shall be the duty of the President of every Board‑----

(a) unless prevented by reasonable cause, to convene and preside at all meetings of the Board and to regulate the conduct of business thereat ;

(b) to exercise supervision and control over the financial and executive administration of the Board ;

(c) to perform all the duties and exercise all the powers specifically imposed or conferred on the President by or under this Act ; and

(d) subject to any restrictions, limitations and conditions imposed by this Act, to exercise executive power for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Act and to be directly responsible for the fulfilment of the purposes of this Act.

(2) The President may, by order in writing, empower the Vice‑President to exercise all or any of the powers and duties referred to in clause (c) of sub‑section (1) other than any power, duty or function which he is by resolution of the Board expressly forbidden to delegate. .

(3) The exercise or discharge of any powers, duties or functions delegated by the President under this section shall be subject to such restrictions, limitations and conditions, if any, as may be laid down by the President and to the control of, and to revision by, the President.

(4) Every order made under sub‑section (2) shall forthwith be communicated to the Board and to the Officer Commanding-in‑Chief, the Command.

23. It shall be the duty of the Vice‑President of every Board‑---

(a) in the absence of the President and unless prevented by reasonable cause, to preside at meetings of the Board and when so presiding to exercise the authority of the President under sub‑section (1) of section 22 ;

(b) during the incapacity or temporary absence of the President or pending his appointment or succession, to perform any other duty and exercise any other power of the President ; and

(c) to exercise any power and perform any duty of the President which may be delegated to him under subsection (2) of section 22.

24. The Executive Officer shall perform all the duties imposed upon him by or under this Act, and shall be responsible for the custody of all the records of the Board, and shall arrange for the performance of such duties relative to the proceedings of the Board or of any Committee of the Board or of any Committee of Arbitration constituted under this Act, as those bodies may respectively impose on him, and shall comply with every requisition of the Board, on any matter pertaining to the administration of the cantonment.

25. The Executive Officer may, in cases of emergency, direct the execution of any work or the doing of any act which would ordinarily require the sanction of the Board and the immediate execution or doing of which is, in his opinion, necessary for the service or safety of the public, and may direct that the expense of executing such work or doing such act shall be paid from the cantonment fund;

Provided that‑------

(a) he shall not act under this section without the previous sanction of the President or, in his absence, of the Vice‑President ;

(b) he shall not act under this section in contravention of any order of the Board prohibiting the execution of any particular work or the doing of any particular act ; and

26‑---31. Electoral rolls. Qualification of electors. Qualification for being a member of the Board. Interpretation. Joint families, etc. Power to make rules regulating elections. Omitted by the Cantonments (Amdt.) Ordinance, 1960 (XXXVIII of 1960), s. II.

Members

32. No member of a Board shall vote at a meeting of the Board or of any committee of the Board on any question relating to his own conduct or on any matter, other than a matter affecting generally the inhabitants of the cantonment, which affects his own pecuniary interest or the valuation of any property in respect of which he is directly or indirectly interested, or of any property of or for which he is a manager or agent.

33. Every member of a Board shall be liable for the loss, waste or misapplication of any money or other property belonging to the Board if such loss, waste or misapplication is a direct consequence of his neglect or misconduct while such member; and a suit for compensation for the same may be instituted against him either by the Board or by the Central Government.

34.‑(1) The Central Government may remove from a Board any member thereof who‑---

(a) incurs any of the disqualifications specified in Part II of the Second Schedule to the Basic Democracies Order, 1959 ; or

(b) has absented himself for more than three consecutive months from the meetings of the Board and is unable to explain such absence to the satisfaction of the Board ; or

(d) has, in the opinion of the Central Government, so flagrantly abused in any manner his position as a member of the Board as to render his continuance as such member detrimental to the public interests ; or

(e) being a legal practitioner, acts or appears on behalf of any other person against the Board in any legal proceeding, or against the Government in any such proceeding relating to any matter in which the Board is or has been concerned, or acts or appears on behalf of any person in any criminal proceeding instituted by or on behalf of the Board against such person ; or

(f) holds a contract for work to be done for, or goods to be supplied to, the Board concerned, or has otherwise any pecuniary interest in its affairs.

(2) The Central Government may, on receipt of a report from the Officer Commanding the station, through the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, remove from a Board any civil or military officer nominated a member of the Board who is, in the opinion of the Officer Commanding the station, unable to discharge his duties as such member and has failed to resign his office.

(3) An elected member shall not be removed from a Board unless, at a special meeting of the District Council concerned, convened in accordance with the provisions of the Basic Democracies Order, 1959, a resolution to the effect that he is liable to be removed under this section is passed by a majority of such members of the District Council as are the Chairmen of the Union Councils and the Town and Union Committees in the District, and the Vice‑Chairmen of the Municipal Committees and the Vice-Presidents of the Cantonment Boards therein, and on the passing of such resolution, the member shall stand removed.

(4) A person removed under this section shall cease to be a member of every local council or other local authority of which he may be a member, and shall not be eligible for election to any local council or other local authority for such period, not exceeding five years, as the Central Government may fix in each case.

(5) No court shall have jurisdiction to enquire into or question the validity of anything done or any order made under this section.

35.‑(1) A member removed under clause (b) of subsection (1) 2[or under sub‑section (2A) of section 34 shall, if otherwise qualified, be eligible for re‑election or re‑nomination.

(2) A member removed under clause (c) or clause (d) of sub‑section (1) of section 34 shall not be eligible for re‑election or nomination for the period during which, but for such removal, he would have continued in office.

(3) A member removed under sub‑section (2) of section 34 shall not be eligible for re‑election or nomination until the expiry of three years from the date of his removal.

Servants

36.‑(1) No person who has directly or indirectly by himself or his partner any share or interest in a contract with, by or on behalf of a Board or in any employment under, by or on behalf of a Board, otherwise than as a servant of the Board, shall become or remain a servant of such Board.

(2) A servant of a Board who knowingly acquires or continues to have directly or indirectly by himself or his partner any share or interest in a contract with, by or on behalf of the Board or, in any employment under, by or on behalf of, the Board, otherwise than as a servant of the Board, shall be deemed to have committed an offence under section 168 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

(3) Nothing in this section shall apply to any share or interest in any contract with, by or on behalf of, or employment under, by or on behalf of a Board if the same is a share in a company contracting with, or employed by, or on behalf of, the Board or is a share or interest acquired or retained with the permission of the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command in any lease or sale to, or purchase by, the Board of land or buildings or in any agreement for the same.

(4) Every person applying for employment as a servant of a Board shall, if he is related by blood or marriage to any member of the Board or to any person, not being a menial servant, in receipt of remuneration from the Board, notify the fact and the nature of such relationship to the appointing authority before the appointment is made, and if he has failed to do so, his appointment shall be invalid but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done by him.

Servants

36A. Every officer or servant, permanent or temporary, of a Board shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of the Pakistan Penal Code, and in the definition of "Legal remuneration" in section 161 of that Code the word "Government

Procedure

37.‑(1) Every Board shall ordinarily hold at least one meeting in every month on such day as may be fixed, and of which notice shall be given in such manner as may be provided, by regulations made by the Board under this Chapter.

(2) The President may, whenever he thinks fit, and shall, upon a requisition in writing by not less than one‑fourth of the members of the Board, convene a special meeting.

(3) Any meeting may be adjourned until the next or any subsequent day, and an adjourned meeting may be further adjourned in like manner.

38. Subject to any regulation made by the Board under this Chapter, any business may be transacted at any meeting;

Provided that no business relating to the imposition, abolition or modification of any tax shall be transacted at a meeting unless notice of the same and of the date fixed therefor has been sent to each member not less than seven days before that date.

39.‑(1) The quorum necessary for the transaction of business at a meeting of a Board in which there is more than one elected member shall be five or one‑half of the number of members of the Board actually holding office at the time, whichever is the greater number;

(l A) The quorum necessary for the transaction of business at a meeting of a Board constituted under sub‑section (3) of section 13A or under sub‑section (1) of section 14, shall be two.

(2) If a quorum is not present, the President shall adjourn the meeting and the business which would have been brought before the original meeting if there had been a quorum present thereat shall be brought before, and may be transacted at, an adjourned meeting, whether there is a quorum present or not.

40. In the absence of‑----

(a) both the President and the Vice‑President from any meeting of a Board in which there is more than one elected member,

(b) the President from a meeting of a Board constituted under sub‑section (3) of section 13A or sub‑section (1) of section 14, the members present shall elect one from among their own number to preside.

41.‑(1) Minutes of the proceedings of each meeting shall be recorded in a book and shall be signed by the President before the close of the meeting, and shall, at such times and in such place as may be fixed by the Board, be open to inspection free of charge by any inhabitant of the cantonment.

(2) Copies of the minutes shall, as soon as possible after each meeting, be forwarded for information to the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, the Officer Commanding the District, the Officer Commanding the brigade area, the District Magistrate and the Military Estates Officer.

42. Every meeting of a Board shall be open to the public unless in any case the President, for reasons to be recorded in the minutes, otherwise directs.

43.‑(1) All questions coming before a meeting shall be decided by the majority of the votes of the members present and voting.

(2) In the case of an equality of votes, the President shall have a second or casting vote.

(3) The dissent of any member from any decision of the Board shall, if the member so requests, be entered in the minutes, together with a short statement of the grounds for such dissent.

43-A.‑(1) Every Board constituted under section 13A in a Class I Cantonment or Class II Cantonment shall appoint a committee consisting of the elected members of the Board, the Health Officer and the Executive Engineer for the administration of such areas in the cantonment as the Central Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare to bazar areas, and may delegate its powers and duties to such committee in the manner provided in clause (e) of sub‑section (1) of section 44.

(2) The Vice‑President of the Board shall be the Chairman of the committee appointed under sub‑section (1).

43-B.(New section 43-B ins. By Ord. 44 of 1979, S. 10) Mohallah Punchayats-------- The Federal Government may constitute Mohallah Punchayats in the Cantonment areas on the basis of consensus for performing such socio-economic functions as may be prescribed by rules made under this Act.

44.‑(1) A Board may make regulations consistent with this Act and with the rules made thereunder to provide for all or any of the following matters, namely :‑----

(a) the time and place of its meetings ;

(b) the manner in which notice of the meeting shall be given ;

(d) the custody of the common seal of the Board and the purposes for which it shall be used; and

(e) the appointment of committees for any purpose and the determination of all matters relating to the constitution and procedure of such committees, and the delegation to such committees, subject to any conditions which the Board thinks fit to impose, of any of the powers or duties of the Board under this Act other than a power to make regulations or bye‑laws.

(2) No regulation made under clause (e) of sub‑section (1) shall take effect until it has been approved by the Central Government.

(3) No regulation made under this section shall take effect until it has been published in such manner as the Central Government may direct.

45.‑(1) A Board may‑-----

(a) join with any other local authority‑----

(i) in appointing a joint committee for any purpose to which they are jointly interested and in appointing a chairman of such committee,

(ii) in delegating to such committee power to frame terms binding on the Board and such other local authority as to the construction and future maintenance of any joint work or to exercise any power which might be exercised by the Board or by such other local authority; and

(iii) in making rules for regulating the proceedings of any such committee relating to the purposes for which it has been appointed ; or

(b) with the previous sanction of the Officer Commanding-in‑Chief, the Command, and the provincial Government concerned, enter into an agreement with any other local authority regarding the levy of any tax or toll whereby the said tax or toll respectively leviable by the Board and by such other local authority may be levied together instead of separately within the limits of the aggregate area comprising the areas subject to the control of the Board such other local authority.

(2) If any difference of opinion arises between any Board and other local authority acting together under this section, the decision thereon of the Central Government or of an officer appointed by the Central Government in this be of an officer half shall be final.

(3) When any agreement such as is referred to in n clause (b) of sub‑section (1) has been entered into, then‑----

(a) where the agreement relates to an octroi or terminal tax or toll, the other local authority with which the Board has made such agreement shall have the same powers to establish octroi limits and Octroi stations and places for the collection of the terminal tax and terminal toll within the cantonment, as has within the area ordinarily subject to its control;

(b) such other local authority shall have the same Power of collecting such tax or toll in the cantonment, and the provisions of any enactment in force relating to the levy of such tax or toll by such other local authority shall apply in the same manner, as if the cantonment were comprised within the area ordinarily subject to its control ; and

(c) the total of the collection of such tax and toll made in the cantonment and in the area ordinarily subject to the control of such other local authority and the costs thereby incurred shall be divided between the cantonment fund and the fund subject to the control of such other local authority, in such proportion as may have been determined by the agreement.

45-A. Every board shall, as soon as may be after the close of the year and not later than the date fixed in this behalf by the Central Government, submit to the Central Government through the Officer Commanding-in-Chief, the Command, a report on the administration of the cantonment during the preceding financial year, in such form and containing such details as the Central Government may direct. The comments, if any, of the Officer Commanding-in-Chief, the Command, on such report shall be communicated by him to the Board which shall be allowed a reasonable time to furnish a reply thereto, and the comments together with the reply, if any, shall be forwarded to the Central Government along with the report.

Control

46. The Central Government may at any time require a Board‑-------

(a) to produce any record, correspondence, plan or other document in its possession or under its control;

(b) to furnish any return, plan, estimate, statement, account or statistics relating to its proceedings, duties or works;

47. The Central Government or the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, may depute any person in the service of the State to inspect or examine any department of the office of, or any service or work undertaken by, or thing belonging to, a Board, and to report thereon, and the Board and its officers and servants shall be bound to afford the person so deputed access at all reasonable times to the premises and property of the Board and to all records, accounts and other documents the inspection of which he may consider necessary to enable him to discharge his duties.

48. The Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, may, by order in writing,‑-----

(a) call for any book or document in the possession or under the control of the Board ;

(b) require the Board to furnish such statements, accounts, reports and copies of documents relating to its proceedings, duties or works as he thinks fit.

49. If, on receipt of any information or report obtained under section 46 or section 47 or section 48, the Central Government or the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, is of opinion‑----

(a) that any duty imposed on a Board by or under this Act has not been performed or has been performed in an imperfect, inefficient or unsuitable manner, or

(b) that adequate financial provision has not been made for the performance of any such duty, it or he may, direct the Board, within such period as it or he thinks fit, to make arrangements to its or his satisfaction for the proper performance of the duty, or, as the case may be, to make financial provision to its or his satisfaction for the performance of the duty;

Provided that, unless in the opinion of the Central Government or the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, as the case may be, the immediate execution of such order is necessary, it or he shall, before making any direction under this section, give the Board an opportunity of showing cause why such direction should not be made.

50. If, within the period fixed by a direction made under section 49, any action the taking of which has been directed under that section has not been duly taken, the Central Government or the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, as the case may be, may make arrangements for the taking of such action, and may direct that all expenses connected therewith shall be defrayed out of the cantonment fund.

51. (1) If the President dissents from any decision of the Board, which he considers prejudicial to the health, welfare or discipline of the troops in the cantonment, he may, for reasons to be recorded in the minutes, by order in writing, direct the suspension of action thereon for any period not exceeding one month and, if he does so, shall forthwith refer the matter to the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, the reference being made, save in cases where the Officer Commanding the District is himself the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, for the purposes of this Act, through the Officer Commanding the District, who may make such recommendations thereon as he thinks fit.

(2) If the District Magistrate considers any decision of a Board to be prejudicial to the public health, safety or convenience, he may, after giving notice in writing of his intention to the Board, refer the matter to the Central Government ; and, pending the disposal of the reference to the Central Government, no action shall be taken on the decision.

(3) If any Magistrate who is a member of a Board, being present at a meeting, dissents from any decision which he considers prejudicial to the public health, safety or convenience, he may, for reasons to be recorded in the minutes and after giving notice in writing of his intention to the President, report the matter to the District Magistrate; and the President shall, on receipt of such notice, direct the suspension of action on the decision for a period sufficient to allow of a communication being made to the District Magistrate and of his taking proceedings as provided by sub‑section (2).

52.‑(1) The Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, may at any time -----

(a) direct that any matter or any specific proposal other than one which has been referred to the Central Government under sub‑section (2) of section 51 be considered or re‑considered by the Board ; or

(b) direct the suspension, for such period as may be stated in the order, of action on any decision of a Board, other than a decision which has been referred to him under sub‑section (1) of section 51, and thereafter cancel the suspension or after giving the Board a reasonable opportunity of showing cause why such direction should not be made, direct that the decision shall not be carried into effect or that it shall be carried into effect with such modifications as he may specify.

(2) When any decision of a Board has been referred to him under sub‑section (1) of section 51, the Officer Commanding‑in-Chief, the Command, may, by order in writing,‑----

(a) cancel the order given by the President directing the suspension of action ; or

(b) extend the duration of the order for such period as he thinks fit; or

(c) after giving the Board a reasonable opportunity of showing cause why such direction should not be made, direct that the decision shall not be carried into effect or that it shall be carried into effect by the Board with such modifications as he may specify.

53. When any decision of a Board has been referred to the Central Government under sub‑section (2) of section 51, the Central Government may, after consulting the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, by order in writing,‑----

(a) direct that no action be taken on the decision ; or

(b) direct that the decision be carried into effect either without modification or with such modifications as it may specify.

54.‑(1) If, in the opinion of the Central Government, any Board is not competent to perform or persistently makes default in the performance of the duties imposed on it by or under this Act or otherwise by law, or exceeds or abuses its powers, the Central Government may, by an order published, together with the statement of the reasons therefor, in the official Gazette, declare the Board to be incompetent or in default or to have exceeded or abused its powers, as the case may be, and supersede it for such period as may be specified in the order;

Provided that no Board shall be superseded unless a reasonable opportunity has been given to it to show cause against the supersession.

(2) When a Board is superseded by an order under subsection (1)‑-----

(a) all members of the Board shall, on such date as may be specified in the order, vacate their offices as such members but without prejudice to their eligibility for election or nomination under clause (c) ;

(b) during the supersession of the Board, all powers and duties conferred and imposed upon the Board by or under this Act or otherwise by law shall be exercised and performed by the Officer Commanding the station subject to such reservation, if any, as the Central Government may prescribe in this behalf ; and

(c) before the expiry of the period of supersession elections shall be held and nominations made for the purpose of reconstituting the Board.

Validity of Proceedings

55.‑(1) No act or proceeding of a Board or of any committee of a Board shall be invalid by reason only of the existence of a vacancy in the Board or committee.

(2) No disqualification or defect in the election, nomination or appointment of a person acting as the President or a member of a Board or of any such committee shall vitiate any act or proceeding of the Board or committee if the majority of the persons present at the time of the act being done or the proceeding being taken were duly qualified members thereof.

(3) Any document or minutes which purport to be the record of the proceedings of a Board or of any committee of a Board shall, if made and signed substantially in the manner prescribed for the making and signing of the record of such proceedings, be presumed to be a correct record of the proceedings of a duly convened meeting, held by a duly constituted Board or committee, as the case may be, whereof all the members were duly qualified

CHAPTER IV SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS AND INTOXICATING DRUGS

56. If within a cantonment, or within such limits adjoining a cantonment as the Central Government may, by notification in the official Gazette define, any person not subject to military or air‑force law or any person subject to military or air‑force law otherwise than as a military officer or a soldier knowingly barters, sells or supplies, or offers or attempts to barter, sell or supply, any spirituous liquor or intoxicating drug to or for the use of any soldier or follower or soldier's wife or minor child without the written permission of the Officer Commanding the station or of some person authorised by the Officer Commanding the station to grant such permission, he shall be punishable with fine which may extend to one hundred rupees, or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months, or with both.

57. If within a cantonment, or within any limits defined under section 56,‑-----

(a) any person subject to military or air‑force law otherwise than as a military officer or a soldier, or

(b) the wife or servant of any such person or of a soldier, has in his or her possession, except on behalf of the Central Government or for the private use of a military officer, more than one quart of any spirituous liquor, other than fermented malt-liquor, without the written permission of the Officer Commanding the station or of some person authorised by the Officer Commanding the station to grant such permission, he or she shall be punishable, in the case of a first offence, with fine which may extend to fifty rupees, and, in the case of a subsequent offence, with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months, or with fine which may extend to one hundred rupees.

58.‑(1) Any police officer or excise officer may, without an order from a Magistrate and without a warrant, arrest any person whom he finds committing an offence under section 56 or section 57, and may seize and detain any spirituous liquor or intoxicating drug in respect of which such an offence has been committed and any vessels or coverings in which the liquor or drug is contained.

(2) Where a person accused of an offence under section 56 has been previously convicted of an offence under that section, an officer in charge of a police station may, with the written permission of a Magistrate, seize and detain any spirituous liquor or intoxicating drug within the cantonment or within any limits defined under that section which, at the time of the alleged commission of the subsequent offence, belonged to, or was in the possession of, such person.

(3) The Court convicting a person of an offence under section 56 or section 57 may order the confiscation of the whole or any part of anything seized under sub‑section (1) or sub‑section(2).

(4) Subject to the provisions of Chapter XLIII of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, anything, seized under sub‑section (1) or sub‑section (2) and not confiscated under sub‑section (3) shall be restored to the person from whom it was taken.

59. The foregoing provisions of this Chapter shall not apply to the sale or supply of any article in good faith for medicinal purposes by a medical practitioner, chemist or druggist authorised in this behalf by a general or special order of the Officer Commanding the station.

CHAPTER V TAXATION

Imposition of Taxation

60-----(1) The Board may, with the previous sanction of the Central Government, impose in any cantonment any tax which, under any enactment for the time being in force, may be imposed in any municipality in the Province wherein such cantonment is situated;

(2) Any tax imposed under this section shall take effect from the date of its notification in the official Gazette.

61. When a resolution has been passed by the Board proposing to impose a tax under section 60, the Board shall in the manner prescribed in section 255 publish a notice specifying‑----

(a) the tax which it is proposed to impose;

(b) the persons or classes of persons to be made liable and the description of the property or other taxable thing or circumstance in respect of which they are to be made liable; and

62.‑(1) Any inhabitant of the cantonment may, within thirty days from the publication of the notice under section 61, submit to the Board an objection in writing to all or any of the proposals contained therein and the Board shall take any objection into consideration and pass orders thereon by special resolution.

(2) If the Board decides to modify its proposals or any of them, it shall re‑publish the modified proposals in the manner provided by section 61 indicating that the proposals are in modification of the proposals previously published ; and the provisions of sub‑section (1) of this section shall apply to such modified proposals.

(3) When the Board has finally settled the proposals, it shall submit them along with the objections, if any, made in connection therewith to the Central Government through the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command.

63. The Central Government may authorise the Board to impose the tax either in the original form or, if any objection has been submitted, in that form or any such modified form as it thinks fit.

64. For the purposes of this Chapter, "annual value" means‑----

(a) in the case of railway stations, hotels, colleges, schools, hospitals, factories and any other buildings which a Board decides to assess under this clause, one‑twentieth of the sum obtained by adding the estimated present cost of erecting the building to the estimated value of the land appertaining thereto, and

(b) in the case of a building or land not assessed under clause (a), the gross annual rent for which such building (exclusive of furniture or machinery therein) or such land is actually let or, where the building or land is not let or in the opinion of the Board is let for a sum less than its fair letting value, might reasonably be expected to let from year to year;

Provided that, where the annual value of any building is by reason of exceptional circumstances, in the opinion of the Board, excessive if calculated in the aforesaid manner, the Board may fix the annual value at any less amount which appears to it to be just.

65.‑(1) Save as otherwise expressly provided in the notification imposing the tax, every tax assessed on the annual value of buildings or lands or of both shall be leviable primarily upon the actual occupier of the property upon which the said tax is assessed, if he is the owner of the buildings or lands or holds them on a building or other lease granted by or on behalf of the Government or the Board or on a building lease from any person.

(2) In any other case, the tax shall be primarily leviable as follows, namely :‑----

(a) if the property is let, upon the lessor ;

(b) if the property is sub‑let, upon the superior lessor ;

(3) On failure to recover any sum due on account of such tax from the person primarily liable, there may be recovered from the occupier of any part of the buildings or lands in respect of which the tax is due such portion of the sum due as bears to the whole amount due the same ratio which the rent annually payable by such occupier bears to the aggregate amount of rent so payable in respect of the whole of the said buildings or lands, or to the aggregate amount of the letting value thereof, if any, stated in the authenticated assessment list.

(4) An occupier who makes any payment for which he is not primarily liable under this section shall, in the absence of any contract to the contrary, be entitled to be reimbursed by the person primarily liable for the payment, and, if so entitled, may deduct the amount so paid from the amount of any rent from time to time becoming due from him to such person.

Assessment List

66. When a tax assessed on the annual value of buildings or lands or both is imposed, the Board shall cause an assessment list of all buildings or lands in the cantonment, or of both, as the case may be, to be prepared in such form as the Central Government may by rule prescribe.

67. When the assessment list has been prepared, the Board shall give public notice thereof, and of the place where the list or a copy thereof may be inspected, and every person claiming to be the owner, lessee or occupier of any property included in the list, and any authorised agent of such person, shall be at liberty to inspect the list and to make extracts therefrom free of charge.

68.‑(1) The Board shall, at the same time, give public notice of a date, not less than one month thereafter, when it will proceed to consider the valuations and assessments entered in the assessment list, and, in all cases in which any property is for the first time assessed or the assessment is increased, it shall also give written notice thereof to the owner and to any lessee or occupier of the property.

(2) Any objection to a valuation or assessment shall be made in writing to the Board before the date fixed in the notice, and shall state in what respect the valuation or assessment is disputed, and all objections so made shall be recorded in a register to be kept for the purpose by the Board.

(3) The objections shall be inquired into and investigated, and the persons making them shall be allowed an opportunity of being heard either in person or by authorised agent, by an Assessment Committee appointed by the Board.

(4) The Assessment Committee shall consist of not less than three persons, and, it shall not be necessary to appoint to the Assessment Committee any member of the Board.

69.‑(1) When all objections made under section 68 have been disposed of, and the revision of the valuation and assessment has been completed, the assessment list shall be authenticated by the signature of the members of the Assessment Committee who shall, at the same time, certify that they have considered all objections duly made and have amended the list so far as is required by their decisions on such objections.

(2) The assessment list so authenticated shall be deposited in the office of the Board, and shall there be open, free of charge, during office hours to all owners, lessees and occupiers of property comprised therein or the authorised agents of such persons, and a public notice that it is so open shall forthwith be published.

70. Subject to such alterations as may thereafter be made in the assessment list under the provisions of this Chapter and to the result of any appeal made thereunder, the entries in the assessment list authenticated and deposited as provided in section 69 shall be accepted as conclusive evidence‑-----

(i) for the purpose of assessing any tax imposed under this Act, of the annual value or other valuation of all buildings and lands to which such entries respectively refer, and

(ii) for the purposes of any tax imposed on buildings or lands, of the amount of each such tax leviable thereon during the year to which such list relates.

71.--‑(1) The Board may amend the assessment list at any time‑---

(a) by inserting or omitting the name of any person whose name ought to have been or ought to be inserted or omitted, or

(b) by inserting or omitting any property which ought to have been or ought to be inserted or omitted, or

(c) by altering the assessment on any property which has been erroneously valued or assessed through fraud, accident or mistake, whether on the part of the Board or of the Assessment Committee or of the assessee, or

(d) by revaluing or re‑assessing any property the value of which has been increased, or

(e) in the case of a tax payable by an occupier, by changing the name of the occupier;

Provided that no person shall by reason of any such amendment become liable to pay any tax or increase of tax in respect of any period prior to the commencement of the year in which the assessment is made.

(IA) Before making any amendment under sub‑section (1) the Board shall give to any person affected by the amendment notice of not less than one month that it proposes to make the amendment.

(2) Any person interested in any such amendment may tender an objection to the Board in writing before the time fixed in the notice, and shall be allowed an opportunity of being heard in support of the same in person or by authorised agent.

72. The Board shall prepare a new assessment list at least once in every three years, and for this purpose the provisions of sections 66 to 71 shall apply in like manner as they apply for the purpose of the preparation of an assessment list for the first time.

73.‑(1) Whenever the title of any person primarily liable for the payment of a tax on the annual value of any building or land to or over such building or land is transferred, the person whose title is transferred and the person to whom the same is transferred shall, within three months after the execution of the instrument of transfer or after its registration, if it is registered, or after the transfer is effected, if no instrument is executed, give notice of such transfer to the Executive Officer.

(2) In the event of the death of any person primarily liable as aforesaid, the person on whom the title of the deceased devolves shall give notice of such devolution to the Executive Officer within six months from the death of the deceased.

(3) The notice to be given under this section shall be in such form as the Executive Officer may direct, and the transferee or other person on whom the title devolves shall, if so required, be bound to produce before the Executive Officer any documents evidencing the transfer or devolution.

(4) Every person who makes a transfer as aforesaid without giving such notice to the Executive Officer shall continue liable for the payment of all taxes assessed on the property transferred until he gives notice or until the transfer has been recorded in the registers of the Board, but nothing in this section shall be held to affect the liability of the transferee for the payment of the said tax.

(5) The Executive Officer shall record every transfer or devolution of title notified to him under sub‑section (1) or subsection (2) in the assessment list and other tax registers of the Board.

74.---‑(1) If any building is erected or re‑erected within the meaning of section 179, the owner shall give notice thereof to the Executive Officer within thirty days from the date of its completion or occupation, whichever is earlier.

(2) Any person failing to give the notice required by subsection (1) shall be punishable with fine which may extend to fifty rupees or ten times the amount of the tax payable on the said building, as erected or re‑erected, as the case may be, in respect of a period of three months, whichever is greater.

Remission and Refund

75. If any building is wholly or partly demolished or destroyed or otherwise deprived of value, the Board may, on the application in writing of the owner or occupier, remit or refund such portion of any tax assessed on the annual value thereof as it thinks fit.

76. In a cantonment when any building or land has remained vacant and unproductive of rent for sixty or more consecutive days, the Board shall remit or refund, as the case may be, such portion of any tax assessed on the annual value thereof as may be proportionate to the number of days during which the said building or land has remained vacant and unproductive of rent;

Provided that in any cantonment which the Central Government, by notification in the official Gazette, has declared to be a hill cantonment and in respect of which the Central Government by the same or a like notification has declared a portion of the year to be the season for the cantonment, when any building or land is leased for occupation through the season only, but the rent charged is the full annual rent, no remission or refund shall be admissible under this section in respect of any time outside the season during which the building or land remains vacant, but in respect of any time, not being less than sixty consecutive days during which within the season such building or land has remained vacant and unproductive of rent, the Board shall remit or refund such portion of any tax assessed on the annual value thereof as bears to the whole of the tax so assessed the same proportion as the number of days during which the building or land has remained vacant and unproductive of rent bears to the total length of the season.

77. For the purpose of obtaining a partial remission or refund of tax, the owner of a building composed of separate tenements may request the Board, at the time of the assessment of the building, to enter in the assessment list, in addition to the annual value of the whole building, a note recording in detail the annual value of each separate tenement. When any tenement, the annual value of which has been thus separately recorded, has remained vacant and unproductive of rent for sixty or more consecutive days , such portion of any tax assessed on the annual value of the whole building shall be remitted or refunded as would have been remitted or refunded if the tenement had been separately assessed.

77A. No remission or refund under section 76, or section 77 shall be made unless notice in writing of the fact that the building, land or tenement has become vacant and unproductive of rent has been given to the Board, and no remission or refund shall take effect in respect of any period commencing more than fifteen days before the delivery of such notice.

78.‑(1) For the purposes of sections 76 and 77 no building, tenement or land shall be deemed vacant if maintained as a pleasure resort or town or country house, or be deemed unproductive of rent if let to a tenant who has a continuing right of occupation thereof, whether he is in actual occupation or not.

(2) The burden of proving all facts entitling any person to claim relief under section 75, or section 76, or section 77, shall be upon him.

79.‑(1) The owner of any building, tenement or land in respect of which a remission or refund of tax has been given under section 76 or section 77 shall give notice of the re‑occupation of such building, tenement or land within fifteen days of such re‑occupation.

(2) Any owner failing to give the notice required by subsection (1) shall be punishable with fine which shall not be less than twice the amount of the tax payable on such building, tenement or land in respect of the period during which it has been reoccupied and which may extend to fifty rupees, or to ten times the amount of the said tax, whichever sum is greater.

Charge on Immoveable Property

80. A tax assessed on the annual value of any building or land shall, subject to the prior payment of the land‑revenue, if any, due to the Government thereon, be a first charge upon the building or land.

Octroi, Terminal Tax and Toll

81. Every person bringing or receiving any goods, vehicles or animals within the limits of any cantonment in which Octroi or terminal tax or toll is leviable, shall, when so required by an officer duly authorized by the Board in this behalf, so far as may be necessary for ascertaining the amount of tax chargeable‑-----

(a) permit that officer to inspect, examine or weigh such goods, vehicles or animals ; and

(b) communicate to that officer any information, and exhibit to him any bill, invoice or document of alike nature, which such person may possess relating to such goods, vehicles or animals.

82.‑(1) Any person who takes or attempts to take past any octroi station or any other place appointed within a cantonment for the collection of octroi, terminal tax or toll any goods, vehicles or animals, on account of which octroi, terminal tax or toll is leviable and thereby evades, or attempts to evade, the payment of such octroi, terminal tax or toll, and any person who abets any such evasion or attempt at evasion, shall be punishable with fine which may extend either to ten times the value of such octroi, terminal tax or toll. or to fifty rupees, whichever is greater and which shall not be less than twice the value of such octroi, terminal tax or toll, as the case may be.

(2) In case of non‑payment of any octroi or terminal tax or toll on demand, the officer empowered to collect the same may seize any goods, vehicles or animals on which the octroi, terminal tax or toll is chargeable or any part or number thereof which is of sufficient value to satisfy the demand and shall give a receipt specifying the items seized.

(3) The Board, after the lapse of five days from the seizure, and after the issue of a notice in writing to the person in whose possession the goods, vehicles or animals were at the time of seizure, fixing the time and place of sale, may cause the property so seized, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be sold by auction to satisfy the demand and any expenses occasioned by the seizure, custody and sale thereof, unless the demand and expenses are in the meantime paid;

Provided that the Executive Officer may, in any case, order that any article of a perishable nature which cannot be kept for five days without serious risk of damage, or which cannot be kept save at a cost which, together with the amount of octroi, terminal tax or toll, is likely to exceed its value, shall be sold after the lapse of such shorter time as he may, having regard to the nature of the article, think proper.

(4) If, at any time before the sale has begun, the person whose property has been seized tenders to the Executive Officer the amount of all expenses incurred and of the octroi, terminal tax or toll, the Executive Officer shall release the property seized.

(5) The surplus, if any, of the sale‑proceeds shall be credited to the cantonment fund, and shall, on application made to the Board within one year after the sale, be paid to the person in whose possession the property was at the time of seizure, and, if no such application is made, shall be the property of the Board.

83. It shall be lawful for the Board, with the previous sanction of the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command to lease the collection of any octroi, terminal tax or toll for any period not exceeding one year; and the lessee and all persons employed by him in the management and collection of the octroi, terminal tax or toll shall, in respect thereof,‑----

(a) be bound by any orders made by the Board for their guidance;

(b) have such powers exerciseable by officers or servants of the Board under this Act as the Board may confer upon them ; and

(c) be entitled to the same remedies and be subject to the same responsibilities as if they were employed by the Board for the management and collection of the octroi, terminal tax or toll, as the case may be;

Provided that no article distrained may be sold except under the orders of the Board.

Appeals

84.‑(1) An appeal against the assessment or levy of, or against the refusal to refund, any tax under this Act shall lie to the District Magistrate or to such other officer as may be empowered by the Central Government in this behalf;

Provided that, where the person to whom the appeal would ordinarily lie is, or was when the tax was imposed, a member of the Board, the appeal shall lie to the Commissioner of the Division, or, in a Province where there are no Commissioners, to the District Judge.

(2) If, on the hearing of an appeal under this section, any question as to the liability to, or the principle of assessment of, a tax arises on which the officer hearing the appeal entertains reasonable doubt, he may, either of his own motion or on the application of the appellant, draw up a statement of the facts of the case and the point on which doubt is entertained, and refer the statement with his own opinion on the point for the decision of the High Court.

(3) On a reference being made under sub‑section (2), the subsequent proceedings in the case shall be, as nearly as may be, in conformity with the rules relating to references to the High Court contained in Order XLVI of the First Schedule to the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.

85. In every appeal the costs shall be in the discretion of the officer hearing the appeal.

86. If the Board fails to pay any costs awarded to an appellant within ten days after the date of the order for payment thereof, the Officer awarding the costs may order the person having the custody of the balance of the cantonment fund to pay the amount.

87. No appeal shall be heard or determined under this Chapter unless‑-----

(a) the appeal is, in the case of a tax assessed on the annual value of buildings or lands or both, brought within thirty days next after the date of the authentication of the assessment list under section 69 (exclusive of the time requisite for obtaining a copy of the relevant entries therein), or, as the case may be, within thirty days of the date on which an amendment is finally made under section 71, and, in the case of any other tax, within thirty days next after the date of the receipt of the notice of assessment or of alteration of assessment or, if no notice has been given, within thirty days next after the date of the presentation of the first bill in respect thereof;

Provided that an appeal may be admitted after the expiration of the period prescribed therefor by this section if the appellant satisfies the Court before whom the appeal is preferred that he had sufficient cause for not preferring it within that period ;

(b) the amount, if any, in dispute in the appeal has been deposited by the appellant in the office of the Board.

88. The order of an appellate authority confirming, setting aside or modifying an order in respect of any valuation or assessment or liability to assessment or taxation shall be final;

Provided that it shall be lawful for the appellate authority, upon application or on its own motion, to review any order passed by it in appeal if application in this behalf is made within three months from the date of the original order.

Payment and Recovery of Taxes

89. Save as otherwise expressly provided under this Act, any tax imposed under the provisions of this Act shall be payable on such dates and in such instalments, if any, as the Board may, by public notice, direct.

90.‑(1) When any tax has become due, the Executive Officer shall cause to be presented to the person liable for the payment thereof a bill for the amount due.

(2) Every such bill shall specify the particulars of the tax and the period for which the charge is made.

91.‑(1) If the amount of the tax for which any bill has been presented is not paid to the Board within thirty days from the presentation thereof, the Executive Officer may cause to be served upon the person liable for the payment of the same a notice of demand in the form set forth in Schedule I.

(2) For every notice of demand which the Executive Officer causes to be served on any person under this section, a fee of such amount, not exceeding one rupee, as shall in each case be fixed by the Executive Officer, shall be payable by the said person and shall be included in the costs of recovery.

92.‑(1) If the person liable for the payment of any tax does not, within thirty days from the service of the notice of demand, pay the amount due, or show sufficient cause for nonpayment of the same to the satisfaction of the Executive Officer, such sum, with all costs of recovery, may be recovered under a warrant, issued in the form set forth in Schedule II, by distress and sale of the moveable property of the defaulter;

Provided that the Executive Officer shall not recover any sum the liability for which has been remitted on appeal under this Chapter.

93.‑(1) It shall be lawful for any servant of the Board to whom a warrant issued under section 92 is addressed to distrain, wherever it may be found in the cantonment, any moveable property of or standing timber, growing crops or grass belonging to the person therein named as defaulter, subject to the following conditions, exceptions and exemptions, namely

(a) the following property shall not be distrained :‑

(i) the necessary wearing apparel and bedding of the defaulter, his wife and children,

(ii) tools of artisans,

(iii) books of account, or

(iv) when the defaulter is an agriculturist, his implements of husbandry, seed‑grain, and such cattle as may be 'necessary to enable the defaulter to earn his livelihood ;

(b) the distress shall not be excessive, that is to say, the property distrained shall be as nearly as possible equal in value to the amount recoverable under the warrant, and if any property has been distrained which, in the opinion of the Executive Officer, should not have been distrained, it shall forthwith be returned.

(2) The person charged with the execution of a warrant of distress shall forthwith make an inventory of the property which he seizes under such warrant, and shall, at the same time, give a written notice in the form set forth in Schedule III to the person in possession thereof at the time of seizure that the said property will be sold as therein mentioned.

94.‑(1) When the property seized is subject to speedy and natural decay, or when the expense of keeping it in custody is, when added to the amount to be recovered, likely to exceed its value, the Executive Officer shall give notice to the person in whose possession the property was at the time of seizure that it will be sold at once, and shall sell it accordingly by public auction unless the amount mentioned in the warrant is forthwith paid.

(2) If the warrant is not in the meantime suspended by the Executive Officer, or discharged, the property seized shall, after the expiry of the period named in the notice served under sub‑section (2) of section 93, be sold by public auction by order of the Executive Officer.

(3) The surplus of the sale‑proceeds, if any, shall forthwith be credited to the cantonment fund, and notice of such credit shall be given at the same time to the person from whose possession the property was taken, and, if the same is claimed by written application to the Board within one year from the date of the notice, a refund thereof shall be made to such person. Any surplus not claimed within one year as aforesaid shall be the property of the Board.

(4) For every distraint made under this Chapter a fee of such amount, not exceeding one rupee, as shall in each case be fixed by the Executive Officer shall be charged, and the said fee shall be included in the costs of recovery.

95.‑(1) If the Executive Officer has reason to believe that any person from whom any sum is due or is about to become due on account of any tax is about to remove from the cantonment, he may direct the immediate payment by such person of the sum so due or about to become due, and cause a bill for the same to be served on such person.

(2) If, on the service of such bill, such person does not forthwith pay the sum so due or about to become due, the amount shall be leviable by distress and sale in the manner hereinbefore provided in this Chapter, except that it shall not be necessary to serve upon the defaulter any notice of demand and the warrant for distress and sale may be issued and executed without any delay.

96. Instead of proceeding against a defaulter by distress and sale as hereinbefore provided in this Chapter, or after a defaulter has been so proceeded against unsuccessfully or with only partial success, any sum due or the balance of any sum due, as the case may be, from such defaulter on account of a tax may be recovered from him by a suit in any Court of competent jurisdiction.

97. Every Board shall be deemed to be a Municipal Committee for the purposes of the Municipal Taxation Act, 1881.

98. A Board may make special provision for the cleansing of any factory, hotel, club or group of buildings or lands used for any one purpose and under one management, and may fix a special rate and the dates and other conditions for periodical payment thereof, which shall be determined by a written agreement with the person liable for the payment of the conservancy or scavenging tax in respect of such factory, hotel, club or group of buildings or lands;

Provided that, in fixing the amount, proper regard shall be had to the probable cost to the Board of the services to be rendered.

99.‑(1) When, in pursuance of section 98, a Board has fixed a special rate for the cleansing of any factory, hotel, club or group of buildings or lands, such premises shall be exempted from the payment of any conservancy or scavenging tax imposed in the cantonment.

(2) The following buildings and lands shall be exempt from any tax on property other than a tax imposed to cover the cost of specific services rendered by the Board, namely

(a) places set apart for public worship and either actually so used or used for no other purpose ;

(b) buildings used for educational purposes and public libraries, play‑grounds and dharmsalas which are open to the public and from which no income is derived ;

(d) burning and burial grounds, not being the property of the Government or a Board, which are controlled under the provisions of this Act ;

(e) buildings or lands vested in a Board ; and

(f) any buildings or lands, used or acquired for the public se vice or for any public purpose, which are the property of the Government, or in the occupation of the Central or any Provincial Government.

99A. The Central Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, exempt, either wholly or in part from the payment of any tax imposed under this Act, any person or class of persons or any property or goods or class of property or goods.

100. A Board may exempt, for a period not exceeding one year at a time from the payment of any tax or any portion of a tax imposed under this Act, any person who is in its opinion by reason of poverty unable to pay the same.

101.‑(1) A Board may, with the previous sanction of the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command allow any person to compound for any tax.

(2) Every sum due by reason of the composition of a tax under sub‑section (1) shall be recoverable as if it were a tax.

102. A Board may write‑off any sum due on account of any tax or rate or of the costs of recovering any tax or rate if such sum is, in its opinion, irrecoverable;

Provided that, where the sum written‑off in favour of any one person exceeds fifty rupees, the sanction of the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, shall be first obtained.

103.‑(1) The Executive Officer may, by written notice, call upon any inhabitant of the cantonment to furnish such information as may be necessary for the purpose of ascertaining‑-----

(a) whether such inhabitant is liable to pay any tax imposed under this Act ;

(b) at what amount he should be assessed ; or

(2) If any person, when called upon under sub‑section (1) to furnish information, neglects to furnish it or furnishes information which is not true to the best of his knowledge or belief, he shall be punishable with fine which may extend to one hundred rupees.

104. No assessment and no charge or demand on account of any tax or fee shall be impeached or affected by reason only of any mistake in the name of any person liable to pay such tax or fee, or in the description of any property or thing, or any mistake in the amount of the assessment, charge or demand, if the directions contained in this Act and the rules and bye‑laws made thereunder have in substance and effect been complied with ; but any person who sustains any special damage by reason of any such mistake shall be entitled to recover compensation for the same by suit in a Court of competent jurisdiction.

105. No distress levied under this Chapter shall be deemed unlawful, nor shall any person making the same be deemed a trespasser, on account only of any defect of form in the notice of demand, warrant of distress or other proceeding relating thereto ; nor shall any such person be deemed a trespasser ab initio on account of any irregularity afterwards committed by him ; but any person who sustains any special damage by reason of any such irregularity shall be entitled to recover compensation for the same by suit in a Court of competent jurisdiction.

CHAPTER VI CANTONMENT FUND AND PROPERTY

Cantonment Fund

106. There shall be formed for every cantonment a cantonment fund, and there shall be placed to the credit thereof the following sums, namely :‑

(a) the balance, if any, of the cantonment fund formed for x the cantonment under the Cantonments Act, 1910,

(b) all sums received by or on behalf of the Board,

107.‑(1) Where in or near a cantonment there is a Government treasury or sub‑treasury, or a branch of the State Bank of Pakistan, the cantonment fund shall be kept in such treasury, sub‑treasury or bank, as the case may be.

(2) Where there is no such treasury, sub‑treasury or bank, the cantonment fund may be deposited with any bank to which the Government treasury business has been entrusted, and, in the absence of such a bank, with any banker or person acting as a banker who has given such security for the safe custody of the fund and the payment on demand of the funds so deposited as the Central Government may in each case direct.

(3) A Board may, from time to time, with the previous sanction of the Officer Commanding‑in‑Chief, the Command, invest any portion of its cantonment fund in securities of the Central Government or in such other securities, including fixed deposits in banks, as the Central Government may approve in this behalf, and may dispose of such investments or vary them for others of a like nature.

(4) The income resulting from any fixed deposit or from any such security as is referred to in sub‑section (3) or from the proceeds of the sale of any such security shall be credited to the cantonment fund.

Property

108. Subject to any special reservation made by the Central Government, all property of the nature hereinafter in this section specified which has been acquired or provided or is maintained by a Board shall vest in and belong to that Board, and shall be under its direction, management and control, that is to say,‑-----

(a) all markets, slaughter‑houses, manure and night-soil depots, and buildings of every description ;

(b) all water‑works for the supply, storage or distribution of water for public purposes and all bridges, buildings, engines, materials, and things connected therewith or appertaining thereto ;

(d) all dust, dirt, dung, ashes, refuse, animal matter, filth and rubbish of every kind, and dead bodies of animals collected by the Board from the streets, houses, privies, sewers, cesspools or elsewhere, or deposited in places appointed by the Board for such purpose;

(e) all lamps and lamp‑posts and apparatus connected therewith or appertaining thereto ;

(f) all land or other property transferred to the Board by the Central or a Provincial Government, or by gift, purchase or otherwise for local public purposes ; and

(g) all streets and the pavements, stones and other materials thereof, and also all trees, erections, materials, implements, and things existing on or appertaining to streets.

109. The cantonment fund and all property vested in a Board shall be applied for the purposes, whether express or implied, for which, by or under this Act or any other law for the time being in force, powers are conferred or duties or obligations are imposed upon the Board;

Provided that the Board shall not incur any expenditure for acquiring or renting land beyond the limits of the cantonment or for constructing any work beyond such limits except‑----

(a) with the sanction of the Central Government, and

(b) on such terms and conditions as the Central Government may impose;

Provided, further, that priority shall be given in the order hereinafter set forth to the following liabilities and obligations of a Board, that is to say,‑

(a) to the liabilities and obligations arising from a trust legally imposed upon or accepted by the Board ;

(b) to the repayment of, and the payment of interest on, any loan incurred under the provisions of the Local Authorities Loans Act, 1914 ;

(d) to the payment of such expenses on account of pauper lunatics sent from the cantonment to public lunatic asylums and mental hospitals as the Central Government directs the Board to pay; and

(e) to the payment of any sum the payment of which is expressly required by the provisions of this Act or any rule or bye‑law made thereunder.

110. When there is any hindrance to the permanent or temporary acquisition upon payment of any land required by a Board for the purposes of this Act, the Central Government may, at the request of the Board, procure the acquisition thereof under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, and on payment by the Board of the compensation awarded under that Act and of the charges incurred by the Government in connection with the proceedings, the land shall vest in the Board.

111. The Central Government may make rules 5 consistent with this Act to provide for all or any of the following matters, namely :‑----

(a) the conditions on which property may be acquired by Boards or on which property vested in a Board may be transferred by sale, mortgage, lease, exchange or otherwise ; and

(b) any other matter relating to the cantonment fund or cantonment property in respect of which no provision or insufficient provision is made by or under this Act, and provision is, in the opinion of the, Central Government, necessary

CHAPTER VII CONTRACTS

112. Subject to the provisions of this Chapter, every Board shall be competent to enter into and perform any contract necessary for the purposes of this Act.

113.‑(1) Every contract‑----

(a) for which budget provision does not exist, or

(b) which involves a value or amount exceeding one hundred rupees, shall require the sanction of the Board.

(2) Every contract other than a contract such as is referred to in sub‑section (1) shall be sanctioned by the Board or by the Executive Officer on behalf of the Board.

114.‑(1) Every contract made by or on behalf of a Board, the value or amount of which exceeds fifty rupees, shall be in writing, and every such contract shall be signed by two members, of whom the President or the Vice President shall be one, and be countersigned by the Executive Officer and be sealed with the common seal of the Board;

Provided that the Executive Officer may in a case of urgency, with the previous sanction of the President of the Board, execute on behalf of the Board any contract the value or amount of which does not exceed two hundred rupees.

(2) Where an Executive Officer executes a contract on be half of a Board under sub‑section (1), he shall submit a report of his action and of the reasons therefor to the Board at its next meeting.

115. If any contract is executed by or on behalf of a Board otherwise than in conformity' with the provisions of this Chapter, it shall not be binding on the Board.

CHAPTER VIII DUTIES AND DISCRETIONARY FUNCTIONS OF BOARDS

116. It shall be the duty of every Board, so far as the funds at its disposal permit, to make reasonable provision within the cantonment for

(a) lighting streets and other public places ;

(b) watering streets and other public places ;

(d) regulating offensive, dangerous or obnoxious trades, callings and practices ;

(e) removing, on the ground of public safety, health or convenience, undesirable obstructions and projections in streets and other public places ;

(f) securing or removing dangerous buildings and places ;

(g) acquiring, maintaining, changing and regulating places for the disposal of the dead ;

(h) constructing, altering and maintaining streets, culverts, markets, slaughter‑houses, latrines, privies, urinals, drains, drainage works and sewerage works ;

(i) planting and maintaining trees on roadsides and other public places ;

(j) providing or arranging for a sufficient supply of pure and wholesome water, where such supply does not exist, guarding from pollution water used for human consumption, and preventing polluted water from being so used ;

(k) registering births and deaths ;

(1) establishing and maintaining a system of public vaccination ; .

(m) establishing and maintaining or supporting public hospitals and dispensaries, and providing public medical relief ;

(n) establishing and maintaining or assisting primary schools ;

(o) rendering assistance in extinguishing fires, and protecting life and property when fires occur ;

(p) maintaining and developing the value of property vested in, or entrusted to the management of, the 2[Board] ; and

(q) fulfilling any other obligation imposed upon it by or under this Act or any other law for the time being in force.

116A. A Board may, subject to any conditions imposed by the Central Government, manage any property entrusted to its management by the Central Government on such terms as to the sharing of rents and profits accruing from such property as may be determined by rule made under section 280.

117.‑(1) A Board may, within the cantonment, make provision for‑----

(a) laying out in areas, whether previously built upon or not, new streets, and acquiring land for that purpose and for the construction of buildings, and compounds of buildings, to abut on such streets ;

(b) constructing, establishing or maintaining public parks, gardens, offices, dairies, bathing or washing places, drinking fountains, tanks, wells and other works of public utility ;

(d) furthering educational objects by measures other than the establishment and maintenance of primary schools ;

(e) taking a census and granting rewards for information which may tend to secure the correct registration of vital statistics ;

(f) making a survey ;

(g) giving relief on the occurrence of local epidemics by the establishment or maintenance of relief works or otherwise ;

(h) securing or assisting to secure suitable places for the carrying on of any offensive, dangerous or obnoxious trade, calling or occupation ;

(i) establishing and maintaining a farm or other place for the disposal of sewage ;

(j) constructing, subsidising or guaranteeing tramways or other means of locomotion, and electric lighting or electric power works ; or

(k) adopting any measure, other than a measure specified in section 116 or in the foregoing provisions of this section, likely to promote the safety, health or convenience of the inhabitants of the cantonment ;

(2) A Board may, either within or outside the cantonment, make provision for the doing of anything on which expenditure is declared by the Central Government, or by the Board with the sanction of the Central Government, to be an appropriate charge on the cantonment fund.

117A. A Board may make provision for educational objects outside the cantonment if it is satisfied that the interests of the residents of the cantonment will be served thereby.

CHAPTER IX PUBLIC SAFETY AND SUPPRESSION OF NUISANCES

General Nuisances

118.‑(1) Whoever‑

(a) in any street or other public place within a cantonment,‑----

(i) is drunk and disorderly or drunk and incapable of taking care of himself ; or

(ii) uses any threatening, abusive or insulting words, or behaves in a threatening or insulting manner with intent to provoke a breach of the peace, or whereby a breach of the peace is likely to be occasioned ; or

(iii) eases himself, or wilfully or indecently exposes his person ; or

(iv) loiters, or begs importunately, for alms ; or

(v) exposes or exhibits, with the object of exciting charity, any deformity or disease or any offensive sore or wound ; or

(vi) carries meat exposed to public view ; or

(vii) is found gaming ; or

(viii) pickets animals, or collects carts ; or

(ix) being engaged in the removal of night‑soil or other offensive matter or rubbish, wilfully or negligently permits any portion thereof to spill or fall, or neglects to sweep away or otherwise effectually to remove any portion thereof which may spill or fall in such street or place ; or

(x) without proper authority affixes upon any building, monument, post, wall, fence, tree or other thing, any bill, notice or other document ; or

(xi) without proper authority defaces or writes upon or otherwise marks any building, monument, post, wall, fence, tree or other thing ; or

(xii) without proper authority removes, destroys, defaces or otherwise obliterates any notice or other document put up or exhibited under this Act ; or

(xiii) without proper authority displaces, damages, or makes any alteration in, or otherwise interferes with, the pavement, gutter, storm-water‑drain, flags or other materials of any such street, or any lamp, bracket, direction‑post, hydrant or water-pipe maintained by the Board in any such street or public place, or extinguishes a public light ; or

(xiv) carries any corpse not decently covered or without taking due precautions to prevent risk of infection or injury to the public health or annoyance to passers‑by or to persons dwelling in the neighbourhood ; or

(xv) carries night‑soil or other offensive matter or rubbish at any hour prohibited by the Board by public notice, or in any pattern of cart or receptacle which has not been approved for the purpose by the Board, or fails to close such cart or receptacle when in use'; or

(b) carries night‑soil or other offensive matter or rubbish along any route in contravention of any prohibition made in this behalf by the Board by public notice ; or

(c) deposits, or causes or permits to be deposited, earth or materials of any description, or any offensive matter or rubbish, in any place not intended for the purpose in any street or other public place or waste or unoccupied land under the management of the Board ; or

(d) having charge of a corpse fails to bury, burn or otherwise lawfully dispose of the same within twentyfour hours after death ; or

(e) makes any grave or buries or burns any corpse in any place not set apart for such purpose ; or

(f) keeps or uses, or knowingly permits to be kept or used, any place as a common gaming house, or assists in conducting the business of any common gaming house ; or

(g) at any time or place at which the same has been prohibited by the Board by public or special notice, beats a drum or tom‑tom, or blows a horn or trumpet, or beats any utensil, or sounds any brass or other instrument, or plays any music ; or

(h) disturbs the public peace or order by singing, screaming or shouting ; or

(i) lets loose any animal so as to cause, or negligently allows any animal to cause, injury, danger, alarm or annoyance to any person ; or

(j) being the occupier of any building or land in or upon which an animal dies, neglects within three hours of the death of the animal, or, if the death occurs at night, within three hours after sunrise, either‑

(i) to report the occurrence to the Executive Officer or to an officer, if any, appointed by him in this behalf with a view to securing the removal and disposal of the car-case by the public conservancy establishment ; or

(ii) to remove and dispose of the car-case in accordance with any general directions given by the Board by public notice or any special directions given by the Executive Officer on receipt of such report as aforesaid ; or

(k) save with the written permission of the Board and in such manner as it may authorise, stores or uses night‑soil, manure, rubbish or any other substance emitting an offensive smell ; or

(1) uses or permits to be used as a latrine any place not intended for that purpose ;

shall be punishable with fine which may extend to fifty rupees.

(2) Whoever does not take reasonable means to prevent any child under the age of twelve years being in his charge from easing himself in any street or other public place within the cantonment shall be punishable with fine which may extend to twenty‑five rupees.

(3) The owner or keeper of any animal found picketed or straying without a keeper in a street or other public place in a cantonment shall be punishable with fine which may extend to twenty rupees.

(4) Any animal found picketed as aforesaid may be removed by any officer or servant of the Board or by any police officer to a pound as if the animal had been found straying.