STATE OF GUJARAT Vs. WALTER PAUL MASTER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The State has come in the appeal against the acquittal of the respondent-accused a police sub-Inspector by the learned Additional Sessions Judge Ahmedabad in Criminal Appeal No. 194 of 1978 who was convicted by the learned Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ahmedabad in Criminal Case no. 1750 of 1977 for the offence punishable under sec. 66 of the Bombay Prohibition Act 1949 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment of one day and to pay a fine of Rs. 250.00 and in default of payment of fine to undergo one months further rigorous imprisonment.

(2.) The case against the respondent-accused is that on 26-5-1977 at about 0.20 hours he was found having consumed alcohol and moving in the compound of the Town Hall at Ahmedabad. He was taken to Civil Hospital Ahmedabad where Medical officer Dr. (Miss) Aruna Madhusudan Joshipura examined him and certified that the accused was not under the influence of alcohol but that he had consumed liquor. The doctor extracted 5 c.c. of blood from the vein of the accused for the purpose of analysis. The Chemical Analyser who analysed the blood of the accused found that it contained 0.1564 per cent. W/V of ethyl alcohol. The accused was therefore charge-sheeted to the Court. The learned Chief Metropolitan Magistrate who tried the accused ultimately convicted the accused for the offence under sec. 66(1)(b) of the Act and sentenced him as aforesaid. He however acquitted the accused for the offence under sec. 85(1)(3) of the Act as he was not under the influence of alcohol. In the appellate Court the accused was acquitted on the ground that the mandatory provisions contained in rule 4 of the Bombay Prohibition (Medical Examination and Blood Test) Rules 1959 (hereinafter referred to as the Blood Test Rules) were not followed. The State has therefore come in appeal.

(3.) The learned appellate Judge considered rule 4(1) of the Blood Test Rules which is to the following effect: