SAKTHI SUGAR LIMITED Vs. SEED INSPECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision has been filed against the orders passed by the Judicial Magistrate cum District Munsif Orathanadu in C.M.P. No.1461 of 1999 in STC No.337 of 1999, dismissing the petition filed on behalf of the petitioners to drop the prosecution for offence under sections 6-A and 7 of the Seeds Act, punishable under section 19-A of the Seeds Act (herein after referred to as 'the Act').

(2.) The brief facts of the prosecution is as follows:- Sample seeds of soya bean were taken by the Seed Inspector from the 1st petitioner firm, on 24.12.1998, on the ground that they were found to be substandard. Thereafter, he send them for analysis to the Seed Testing Officer, Katthuthotam, who received them on 05.01.1998 and submitted his report back to the Seed Inspector on 07.01.1998 and the report disclosed that the seeds were found to be substandard. The seed Inspector thereafter filed a complaint before the Judicial Magistrate, Orathanadu on 08.06.1999 on the basis of this analyst report.

(3.) The petitioners received summons and appeared before the court on 28.6.1999 and filed an application for discharge, stating that the complaint itself reveals that the date of expiry was on 19.05.1999 whereas the complaint has been filed only on 08.06.1999 and the valuable right that has been conferred on them, by virtue of section 16(2) of the Act, which authorises them to file an application before the court before which the complaint has been launched, for getting the samples retested and if retest has been done, the second report or the report obtained after the retest takes precedence over the first report and that would reveal that the seeds are not substandard. However, since the complaint has been filed after the expiry date, they have been deprived of their valuable right and hence the prosecution has to be dropped.