Section 31:
Moving of vessels without pilot or permission of harbour-master.
(1) No vessel of
the measurement of two hundred tons or upwards shall enter, leave or be moved in any port to
which this section has been specially extended without having a pilot, harbour-master or assistant
of the port-officer or harbour-master on board;
1[and no mechanically propelled vessel of any measurement less than two hundred tons and no
other vessel of any measurement less than two hundred tons] and exceeding one hundred tons shall
enter, leave or be moved in any such port without having a pilot, harbour-master or assistant of the
port-officer or harbour-master on board, unless authority in writing so to do has been obtained from
the conservator or some officer empowered by him to give such authority.
2[Provided that the 3[Government] may, by notification in the Official Gazette, direct that in any port
specified in such notification the provisions of this sub-section shall not apply to sailing vessels of any
measurement not exceeding a measurement so specified.]
4[(2) Notwithstanding anything in sub-section (1), the owner or master of a vessel which is by
that sub-section required to have a pilot, harbour-master or assistant of the port-officer or harbourmaster on board, shall be answerable for- any loss or damage caused by the vessel or by any fault
of the navigation of the vessel, in the same manner as he would have been if he had not been so
required by that sub-section:
Provided that the provisions of this sub-section shall not take effect till the first day of January,
1918, or such earlier date as the Central Government may notify in that behalf in the Official
Gazette.]
5[(3)] If any vessel, except in case of urgent necessity, enters, leaves or is moved in the port contrary
to the provisions of sub-section (1), the master of the vessel shall for every such offence be punishable
with fine which may extend to two hundred rupees, unless upon application to the proper officer the
master was unable to procure a pilot, harbour-master or assistant of the port-officer or harbour-master to
go on board the vessel.
6* * * * *
Notes:
1. Subs. by Act 55 of 1952, s. 3, for certain words.
2. Ins. by Act 36 of 1925, s. 2.
3. Subs. by the A.O. 1937, for "Governor-General in Council".
4. Ins. by Act 6 of 1916, s. 5.
5. Sub-sections (2), (3) and (4) re-numbered as sub-sections (3), (4) and (5) respectively by s. 5, ibid.
6. Sub-sections (4) and (5), as re-numbered by Act 6 of 1916, s. 5, omitted by Act 36 of 1925, s. 2.