PRANAVBHAI V. ADANI Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application preferred by the applicants who are accused Nos.3 and 4 in Criminal Case No.9066 of 2007 filed before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Gandhinagar filed under Sec. 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 for quashing the criminal complaint filed by accused Nos.3 and 4 for the offence punishable under Ss. 7(2) , 7(3) and 16(1)(4)(i) and (ii) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act , 1954. (for short, 'PFA Act').

(2.) Brief facts arising for filing the application are that on 19/8/2006 at 13.45 hours, the complainant visited Adani Super Market managed by B2C India Limited with one Shri T.V.Makwana. At that time, accused No.1 was present at the place and he disclosed his identity as a Manager of the firm. Upon inspection, the complainant found registration certificate No.5409 dtd. 9/5/2005 of the firm in the name of Shri Samir Vora, and while making inquiry, it was found that packing of desi 'Moongdal' of 500 gram were kept for sale. The accused no.1 stated the rate of each pack to be at Rs.23.50 and on each of packing, mark of "Adani Veg" and packed by "Adani Retail Limited, Prasad Complex, Opp. Jain Derasar, Nehrungar Circle, Ambavadi Ahmedabad, 380015" was printed and on each of the packing stickers "Adani:s 21754", "Moong Dal" Deshi-500 g. Net Wt. M.R.P. Rs.23.50 (incl of all taxes) Pkd-14/8/2006, Best Before 13/10/6 was written and while making clarification regarding 21754, the accused no.1 stated that it was a code for counting the price in the computer and various code numbers were given for various weight of 'deshi moongdal' and till it is not being change, it remains as it is and there being no concern with packing made from the separate stock of moongdal, and therefore, that was not the batch number

(3.) That thereafter, the complainant seized the samples after following due process of law and after declaring the sample as misbranded, the permission of local health authority was sought for lodging a complaint before the Court and after getting permission on 28/2/2007, the impugned complaint came to be lodged before the court concerned against various accused persons; including the present applicant/s.