ROZAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ON 30 -4 -1963 at 2 -30 a.m. the applicant was found transporting 15 bags of wheat, 23 bags of paddy, 1 bag of gram and 3 bags of peas on his truck on Bansi Road, near the Octroi barrier of the Municipal Board, Basti. As he had no licence or permit for transporting the same he was sent up for trial Under Section 8 of the Essential Commodities Act 1955 before a Magistrate. When questioned, the applicant admitted that he was carrying the aforesaid grain on his truck as it was handed over to him by the grain -dealers in Hallaur Bazar and that he had committed a mistake. Taking this as a plea of guilty, the learned Magistrate convicted him Under Section 8 of the Essential Commodities Act and sentenced him to pay a line of Rs. 150/ -. On appeal, the order of the learned Magistrate was affirmed by the learned Sessions Judge.

(2.) IT is settled law that in order to convict a person even on his plea of guilty, it is necessary for the prosecution to prove that the allegations made against him, which he is alleged to have admitted as correct, constitute an offence under the law. Learned Counsel appearing for the State, took several adjournments to show that the transport of grain by a truck driver from one place to the other inside the same district was prohibited under some order promulgated under the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act, but he could not produce any such order. There is no evidence on the record to indicate that unless the driver of a truck has been permitted by the State to transport grain from one place to the other in the same district, his doing so was an offence under the Essential Commodities Act. In his statement the applicant did not say that what he had done was an offence though he did state that it was his mistake. In the circumstances his conviction Under Section 8 of the Essential Commodities Act is wholly unsustainable.