277Licences required for carrying on of certain occupations

(1) No person of any of the following classes, namely:--

(a) butchers and vendors of poultry, game or fish;

(b) persons keeping pigs for profit, and dealers in the flesh of pigs which have been slaughtered within or without cantonment;

(c) persons keeping milch cattle or milch goats for profit;

(d) persons keeping for profit any animals other than pigs, milch cattle or milch goats;

(e) dairymen, buttermen and makers and vendors of ghee;

(f) makers of bread, biscuits or cake and vendors of bread, biscuits or cake made within or without cantonment;

(g) vendors of fruits or vegetables;

(h) manufacturers of aerated or other potable waters or of ice or ice-cream, and vendors of the same;

(i) vendors of any medicines, drugs or articles of food or drink for human consumption (other than the flesh of pigs, milk, butter, bread, biscuits, cake, fruit, vegetables, aerated or other potable waters or ice or ice-cream) which are of a perishable nature;

(j) vendors of spirituous liquor;

(k) vendors of water to be used for drinking purposes;

(l) washermen;

(m) dealers in hay, straw, wood, charcoal or other inflammable material;

(n) dealers in fire-works, kerosene oil, petroleum or any other inflammable oil or spirit;

(o) tanners and dyers;

(p) persons carrying on any trade or occupation from which offensive or unwholesome smells arise;

(q) vendors of wheat, rice and other grain or of flour;

(r) makers and vendors of sugar or sweetmeats;

(s) barbers and keepers of shaving saloons;

(t) any other person carrying on such other trade, calling or occupation as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify in this behalf,

shall carry on his trade, calling or occupation in any part of a cantonment unless he has applied for and obtained a licence in this behalf from the Board.

(2) A licence granted under sub-section (1) shall be valid until the end of the year in which it is issued and the grant of such licence shall not be withheld by the Board unless it has reason to believe that the business which it is intended to establish or maintain would be offensive or dangerous to the public or that the premises in which the business is intended to be established or maintained are unfit or unsuitable for the purpose.

(3) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1),--

(a) no person who was, at the commencement of this Act, carrying on his trade, calling or occupation in any part of a cantonment shall be bound to apply for a licence for carrying on such trade or occupation in that part until he has received from the Board not less than three months notice in writing of his obligation to do so, and if the Board refuses to grant him a licence, it shall pay compensation for any loss incurred by reason of such refusal;

(b) no person shall be required to take out a licence for the sale or storage of petroleum or for the sale or possession for sale of poisons or white arsenic in any case in which he is required to take out a licence for such sale, storage, or possession for sale by or under the Petroleum Act, 1934 (30 of 1934) or the Poisons Act, 1919 (12 of 1919).

(4) The Board may charge for the grant of licences, under this section such reasonable fees, as it may fix keeping in view the fees levied in this regard in a municipality in the State wherein such cantonment is situated.