RATAN LAL Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application in revision by Ratan Lal against his conviction under Section 7, Essential Supplies (Temporary Powers) Act, 1946, for contravention of Para 3, U. P. Food-grains Procurement Order, 1949, and sentence of three months' rigorous imprisonment and Rs. 200/fine.

(2.) The applicant is a cultivator in villages Purqazi and Bhoraheri and pays rent and canal dues. Under the Foodgrains Procurement Order, 1949, he was asked to deliver to the Government in 1949 scheduled foodgrains of the value of Rs. 1139/9/-, which would roughly amount to 100 maunds of foodgrains. He failed to do so and was consequently prosecuted for contravening Para 3 of the said Order. His defence was that he had grown only 60 maunds of foodgrains which he had distributed to labourers and to the Cane 'Co-operative Society which had advanced to him seeds for growing foodgrains. He further raised a plea that the U. P. Foodgrains Procurement Order was invalid because it went beyond the powers of the U. P. Government as delegated to it by the Central Government under Section 3(2)(f), Essential Supplies (Temporary Powers) Act. There was no evidence to show that the applicant held stocks more than 60 maunds in weight. Evidence was led by the applicant of respectable persons to show that the produce in the year in question was lean and that many cultivators had perforce to satisfy the Government demand by purchasing foodgrains from other sources. The contention of the applicant that the Foodgrains Procurement Order was 'ultra vires' was rejected by the Magistrate and by the learned Sessions Judge in appeal and he was convicted by the Magistrate as aforesaid and his conviction was upheld by the learned Sessions Judge. The only point for our consideration is whether the U. P. Foodgrains Procurement Order, 1949, is 'ultra vires' or not.

(3.) The U. P. Foodgrains Procurement Order, 1949, was made in exercise of the powers conferred by Clause (f) of Sub-section (2) of Section 3, Essential Supplies (Temporary Powers) Act 1946, No. 24 of 1946, and by virtue of the authority delegated to the Provincial Government under the Government of India, late Food Department's Notification No. PY-603(2)I, dated 21-10-1946, as continued in force under Section 17 of said Act. Section 3(2)(f), Essential Supplies (Temporary Powers) Act authorises the Central Government to make an order to provide "for requiring any person holding stock of an essential commodity to sell the whole or a specified part of the stock at such prices and to such persons or class of persons or in such circumstances, as may be specified in the order." The words "holding stock" should be specifically noted. The order could require a person who actually held stocks of essential commodity to sell the whole or part of it. The Order could not require a person not holding such stocks to procure it from somewhere and to sell it to the specified person. Para 3, U. P. Foodgrains Procurement Order, 1949, however, did not observe this essential feature of Clause (f) of the said Act. Para 3 of the Order runs as follows: