SUDHAKARAN Vs. SECRETARY MALABAR COMMITTEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner in both these revision petitions is the Secretary of the Kumaranalloor Cooperative Marketing Society, Ltd., and the respondent the Secretary of the Malabar Market Committee, Kozhikode. The petitioner was convicted under S.17 read with S.5 (1) of the Madras Commercial Crops Markets Act, 1933 and sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 50 in each case by the Munsiff Magistrate of Pattambi; and the convictions and sentences have been confirmed in revision by the Sessions Judge of Palghat.

(2.) The facts are not in dispute. The Market Committee established a regulated market under the Act at Vattamkulam within five miles of the office of the Cooperative Society. On a particular day the petitioner purchased ripe arecanuts from two persons and paid the price. The two vendors were members of the Cooperative Society; and the contention of the petitioner is that such purchases of a commercial crop by a Cooperative Society from its members will not come within the mischief of S.5(1) of the Act. In other words the purchase by the Cooperative Society will come within the third proviso to that sub-section.

(3.) S.5(1) provides that no person shall, within a notified area, so declared under S.4(1), set up, establish or use, or continue or allow to be continued, any place for the purchase or sale of a notified commercial crop, so notified and declared under S.3 and 4(1), except under and in accordance with the conditions of a licence granted by the Collector. The first proviso to the sub-section then says that after the establishment by the Market Committee, established by the State Government under S.4A(1) in a notified area, of a market for the purchase and sale of a notified commercial crop under S.4A(2), no licence for the purchase or sale of such commercial crop shall be granted or renewed in respect of any place situated within such distance of the market as may from time to time be fixed by the State Government. The second proviso provides further that the Market Committee may exempt from the provisions of this sub-section any person who carried on the business of purchasing or selling any commercial crop in quantities not exceeding those prescribed by rules made under the Act. Then comes the third proviso relevant for the purpose of these cases. It provides that a person selling a commercial crop which has been grown by him, or a Cooperative Society registered or deemed to be registered under the Madras Cooperative Societies Act, 1932 selling a commercial crop which has been grown by any of its members, shall be exempt from the provisions of this sub-section, etc. The other sub-sections of the section I am not considering at this stage.