K R RACICHANDRAN MANAGER AND NOMINEE VIRUDHUNAGAR Vs. STATE GOVERNMENT OF TAMILNADU AUTHORIZEE JOINT DIRECTOR P F A

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner has filed the above Criminal Original Petition to call for the records relating to C.C.No,237 of 2007 on the file of the Judicial Magistrate No.V, Coimbatore and quash the same.

(2.) THE prosecution case is that the respondent/Food Inspector, attached to the Coimbatore City Minicipal Corporation inspected a Bakery namely 'Jaya Vilas' running at No,55, Selvapuram, Perur Main Road, Coimbatore on 10.06.2006 at 10.30AM. It was found that 10Kg of Bakery shortening manufactured by M/s M.N.Nagalingam Refineries, were kept in a open box. THE Inspector took three samples of 200 grams packets from the said Bakery shortening in the presence of a witness, M.Raju. THE petitioner/accused said that he had purchased it from M/s.M.N.Nagalingam Refineries and said he did not have the relevant bills for the said item. THE respondent then duly informed and gave the local health Inspector two sample packets on 12.06.2006 to be kept in safe custody and sent a sample to public Analyst, Food Analysis Laboratory, Salem, on the same day. THE report from the public Analyst at Salem was received on 13.07.2006. It was mentioned in the report (No,5012/2006-2007 dated 12.07.2006), that the said sample was adulterated. After this the respondent got the P.F.A. Certificate issued by Virudhunagar Municipality from the said M/s. Nagalingam Refineries as also a Certificate from K.R.Ravichandran that he is the Manager of the said M/s Nagalingam Refineries. Subsequently, a Form-VI was issued to the 2nd petitioner by the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department wherein details regarding ownership of firm, TNGST Registration and Licence (Chalan Copy) under PFA Act for the year and signed Xerox copy of Certificate of incorporation issued under the company Act were sought.

(3.) CONSIDERING the facts and circumstances of the case and the citations furnished by the petitioner in (1) (2008) 2 MLJ (Crl) 789, Bharat Niketan Engineering College -vs- S.Natarajan, (2) (2007) 3 Supreme Court Cases (Cri) 203 N.K.Wahi -vs- Sekar Singh, the Court is of the view that as the public analyst report was received by the respondent on 13.07.2006 itself, and the Form-13(2) Notice issued to the accused only on 26.03.2007 and hence there is an unexplained delay caused by the respondent. Further, there is no documentary proof that the said adulterated material was sold to the 1st and the 2nd accused. As such, there are irregularities in the prosecution case. Therefore, the Court opines that the complaint as against Accused 3 and 4 in C.C.No,237/2007 is not maintainable and is therefore quashed as against them only. Accordingly, the Criminal Original Petition No,23667 of 2007 is allowed. Consequently the connected Miscellaneous Petition is closed.