Indian Ports Act, 1908
21. Improperly discharging ballast
(1) No ballast or rubbish, and no other thing likely to form a
bank or shoal or to be detrimental to navigation, shall, without lawful excuse,
be cast or thrown into any such port or into or upon any place on shore from
which the same is liable to be washed into any such port, either by ordinary or
high tides, or by storms or. land-floods 28[and no oil or water
mixed with oil shall be discharged in or into any such port, to which any rules
made under clause (ee) of sub-section (1) of section 6 apply, otherwise than in
accordance with such rules].
(2) Any person who by himself or another so casts or throws any
ballast or rubbish or any such other thing 28[or so discharges any
oil or water mixed with oil], and the master of any vessel from which the same
is so cast, 29[thrown or discharged], shall be punishable with fine
which may extend to five hundred rupees, and shall pay any reasonable expenses
which may be incurred in removing the same.
(3) If after receiving notice from the conservator of the port
to desist from so casting or throwing any ballast or rubbish or such other
thing 28[or from so discharging any oil or water mixed with oil],
any master continues so to cast, 30[throw or discharge the same], he
shall also be liable to simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two
months.
(4) Nothing in this section applies to any case in which the
ballast or rubbish or such other thing is cast or thrown into 28[or
the oil or water mixed with oil is discharged in or into] any such port with
the consent in writing of the conservator, or within any limits within which
such act may be authorized by the 2[Government].