STATE OF GUJARAT Vs. DHULAJI BAVAJI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) His Lordship after discussing the evidence held that there was sufficient acceptable evidence to convict the accused in respect of the charge against him under sec. 85 (1)(i) and sec. 85(1)(iii) of the Bombay Prohibition Act. His Lordship further stated:

(2.) Now section 66(1)(b) of the Bombay Prohibition Act provides that:

(3.) The sub-section enjoins upon the Court in the absence of such proof to presume the contrary. Under sub-section (2) of section 66 therefore the burden that the liquor was not prohibited intoxicant has been thrown upon the accused. It was however not the case of the accused that what was drunk or consumed by him was not prohibited liquor and that what he had consumed was a medicinal or a toilet preparation containing alcohol. His case in fact was that he was in his house when the police raided the locality and that he had not drunk or consumed any liquor at all. Now it is fairly clear that sub-section (1)(b) of section 66 makes the act of consumption of an intoxicant an offence. The sub-section uses the word consumes which means that the act of drinking or consuming an intoxicant has been made an offence. The Legislature has not used the words having been found to have used or consumed. Therefore the offence under section 66(1)(b) is complete when a person consumes prohibited intoxicant. The act does not define the word consume and therefore we must attribute to the word consume its literary dictionary meaning. According to Webster's New World Dictionary 1956 edition the word consume means to drink or eat up devour. Lord Hawart C. J. while dealing with the word consume in section 4 of the Licensing Act 1921 in Caldwell v. Jones 1923 (2) 0.B. 309 also has observed that the word consume must be read in its natural and ordinary sense and on such a meaning held in the light of the provisions of section 4 of the Licensing Act that that section prohibited except during the permitted hours and subject to the specific exceptions provided for by the Act the consumption on licensed premises of any intoxicant liquor even though that liquor might not have been sold or supplied on those premises but was brought into the premises by the person consuming it there. When the word consume thus is given its dictionary meaning it would mean to drink or to otherwise use prohibited liquor. There is a clear distinction between the act of consuming and the fact of a man having been found drunk. In fact the Act itself makes that distinction for under section 66 (1)(b) the act of consuming has been made an offence while under section 85 the fact of a man having been found drunk and incapable of taking care of himself in any street thoroughfare are public place has been made a distinct offence.