JUDGMENT 1. This is a rule calling upon the District Magistrate of Midnapur to show cause why the convicting of and sentence passed on the Petitioners Should not be set aside. The charge against the Petitioners was that they had built a new embankment in a certain prohibited area, that is, on an area which a Government notification has declared must be left unoccupied for spill purposes and within which no embankments were to be erected. The embankment in question was 250 feet long and 21/2 feet high. The trying Magistrate has found that there was an old embankment there before and that the Petitioners have merely added to or repaired this bundh by throwing earth on it and that the Sub-Overseers and peons both saw them do this. In these circumstances we think that the Petitioners have committed an offence within the meaning of sec 76 of Act II of 1882 (B.C.) because that section prohibits not only the construction of new bundhs but adding to old bundhs so as to obstruct the flow of water. And this was done in a prohibited area which was to be left unoccupied for spill purposes. It stands to reason that if persons construct a bundh in a prohibited area they must interfere with and obstruct the flow of the water. 2. It is unnecessary, therefore, for us to interfere and we discharge this rule.