MANOJ Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants herein, Manoj (A1) and Prakash (A2), who are related to each other as nephew and uncle, were tried and convicted for the offences punishable under Sec. 3 read with Sec. 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 [For short, "E.C. Act"] and were sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year and to pay a fine of Rs.100.00, in default thereof to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for one month, by judgment dtd. 3/4/2000 passed by the Special Judge, Aurangabad [Hereinafter referred to as "the trial Court"] in Special Case No. 22 of 1994. Aggrieved thereby, the appellants preferred Criminal Appeal No. 166 of 2000 before the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, Bench at Aurangabad [Hereinafter referred to as "the High Court"]. The High Court dismissed the appeal and affirmed the judgment of conviction and sentence passed by the trial Court. Hence, the present criminal appeals.

(2.) The prosecution case is that the Public Works Department [For short, "PWD"] of the State Government had awarded the work of construction of a Khar passage in cement concrete along the Kannad ­ Bahirgaon Road, Aurangabad to Bharat Majdoor Credit Cooperative Society. After obtaining the work order, the Chairman of the said Society, Madhukar (A3) is alleged to have sublet the work to Prakash Vyenkatrao (A4). At the relevant time, Sadashiv (A5) and one more accused (A6) were working as peons in the PWD godown at Aurangabad.

(3.) As per the terms of the contract, the PWD was required to supply 850 bags of cement from Government quota to the contractor (A3) for execution of the work. Accordingly, the Deputy Engineer of PWD, Ramesh Jaiswal (P.W.8) issued the first indent for supply of 400 bags of cement in the first week of March 1994. However, according to the prosecution, the second indent of 400 bags of cement released from the PWD godown did not reach the work site.