JAGDISH PRASAD Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal raises a question of construction of sub-s. (1) of S. 16 of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. The sub-section in providing for punishment for breaches of the Act states, "for a second offence, with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years and with fine". In respect of the first offence it provides for a smaller sentence. The question is whether the appellant was liable to punishment for a second offence. The order of this Court granting leave to appeal confined it only to that question.

(2.) It appears that on an earlier occasion the appellant kept foodstuffs for sale in a container without covering it as required by sub-r. (3) of R. 49 of the rules made under the Act and was thereupon convicted under S. 16 and sentenced to a fine of Rs. 40 as for a first offence. This time he has been convicted for selling foodstuff which had been coloured with a dye the use of which was prohibited by Rs. 28 of the same rules.

(3.) Learned counsel for the appellant stated that the present was not a second offence. If we have understood his arguments correctly, and we confess to some difficulty in understanding them, he said that the second offence contemplated is an offence constituted by the same kind or type of act for which he had been convicted under the Act on an earlier occasion. According to him, if the present conviction was for keeping foodstuff intended for sale in a container not covered as required by sub-r. (3) of R. 49, then only it would have been for a second offence, but as the conviction in the present case was for selling foodstuff coloured with prohibited dye, it was not for a second offence.