Indian Ports Act, 1908
31. Moving of vessels without pilot or permission of
harbor 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
especially extended without having a pilot, harbor-master or assistant of the
port-officer or harbor-master on board.
31 [and no mechanically propelled vessel of any measurement
less than two hundred tons and no other vessel of any measurement legs than two
hundred tons and exceeding one hundred tons] shall enter, leave or be moved in
any such port without having a pilot, harbor-master or assistant of the port
officer or harbor-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.
32 [Provided that the 33[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 go specified].
34 [(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, harbor-master or assistant of the port-officer or harbormaster 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 go 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.]
35 [(3)] If any vessel, except in case of urgent necessity,
enters, leaves or is moved in the port contrary to the provisions of subsection
(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, harbor-master or
assistant of the port-officer or harbor-master to go on board the vessel.