MADAN LAL AND ANOTHER Vs. M.C.D.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On 28th July 1970 the Food Inspector Shri Prem Prakash purchased a sample of Dhania Powder for analysis from Shri Jagdish Chander, Salesman of firm M/s. Chela Ram Madan Lal, a concern dealing in spices and condiments. On analysis by the Public Analyst the sample was found to be adulterated. On the receipt of the report of the Public Analyst, the Municipal Prosecutor filed a complaint in Oct. 1971 against the firm, its two partners Chela Ram and Madan Lal and the Salesman Jagdish Chander. The trial Magistrate framed charges against all the accused except the firm. The firm was discharged in view of the judgment in Rameshwar Dass Chhote Lal Vs. Union of India and others, (I.L.R. 1969 Delhi 1196) wherein it was held that a company or a firm could be indicted and punished only for an offence for which the imprisonment was not mandatory; since the offence of which the firm was accused of is compulsorily punishable with imprisonment the firm was . ordered to be discharged. The view expressed in M/s. Rameshwar Dass Chhote Lal and others (supra) was reconsidered in Municipal Corporation of Delhi Vs. J.B. Bottling Company Private Ltd., 1975 (1) F.A.C. 321 and the Full Bench held that a company as defined in section 17 of the Act does not enjoy immunity from prosecution when under the said Act it is alleged to have committed an offence to which the proviso to sub-section (1) of section 16 is not applicable and, in case such a company is found guilty of such an offence, it can be punished with fine.

(2.) In view of the change in the law, on 25th Nov. 1975 the Municipal Corporation of Delhi through the Assistant Municipal Prosecutor filed a fresh complaint under section 7/16 of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act against the firm M/s. Chela Ram Madan Lal. Summons were issued to the firm but they were not accepted by its partners Chela Ram and Madan Lal. On 24th March 1977 the Magistrate ordered that bailable warrants in the sum of Rs. 2000.00 be issued against Chela Ram and Madan Lal.

(3.) Against the aforesaid order Madan Lal and Chela Ram have come in revision.