THAROO LAL Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Sri Tharoo Lal, occupier Nawabganj Sugar Mills, district Gonda and Sri Ram Sundar Lal Tewari, the weighment clerk at Ragarganj purchasing centre of Nawabganj Sugar Mills, have been convicted under Section 22 of the U.P. Sugarcane (Regulation of Supply and Purchase) Act of 1953 for a breach of Rule 96(1)(f) of the U.P. Sugarcane (Regulation of Supply and Purchase) Rules of 1954. Sri Tharoo Lal has been sentenced to a fine of Rs. 1,000/-, in default five months' simple imprisonment, and Ram Sundar has been sentenced to a fine of Rs. 500/-, in default three months' simple imprisonment. They have come up in revision against this order of conviction.

(2.) Briefly stated, the facts of the case are that Sri Tharoo Lal is the occupier of Nawabganj Sugar Mills and Ram Sundar Lal, the other applicant, is the weighment clerk of the said mills at the Ragarganj purchasing centre. On the 24th March, 1955, Sri Man Singh, Sugarcane Inspector Gonda, paid a surprise visit to the Ragarganj purchasing centre in order to check up the working at that centre. He came at about 4 p.m. and he found four empty carts there. The practice which is followed is that when the carts come laden with sugarcane they are weighed and then after removing the sugarcane the empty carts are weighed again. In this way the actual weight of the sugarcane is computed and this is recorded in the 'parchis' which are give to the cane growers who come with their carts. Payment is made to the cane growers on the basis of these parchis. When Sri Man Singh came to the centre, he found three cart men with four carts and. he took their parchis from them. In order to check tip that the weights were rightly recorded on the parchis, he reweighed the empty carts. At that time no employee of the Nawabganj Sugar Mills was present and so Sri Man Singh himself weighed these carts. On weighment he found that the weight of the empty carts was wrongly recorded in all the three parchis. There was an overstatement of their weights varying from 10 to 25 seers in the case of every cart and the total difference came to one maund 25 seers. This indicated that the cane growers would be robbed of the price of one-maund and 25 seers of sugarcane and the Nawabganj Sugar Mills would wrongfully gain by this incorrect weighment. While Sri Man Singh was-weighing these carts Sri Kedar Nath cashier, an employee of Nawabganj Sugar Mills, came there and Sri Man Singh asked. Sri Kedar Nath to weigh these carts again. Sri Kedar Nath did so and the weight found by Sri Kedar Nath tallied with the weight recorded by Sri Man Singh. Sri Man Singh thereupon asked Sri Kedar Nath to pub down these weights which he had found on the parchis of the cartmen and sign them. Earlier Sri Man Singh had satisfied himself that the weighing machine was in order and it was functioning properly. He then took the statements of the three cartmen who were present there and as some of these cartmen were literate they wrote down their statements. He then served a notice upon the two applicants and as the replies were Found to be unsatisfactory, he obtained the sanction of the Deputy Commissioner, Gonda, and prosecuted the two applicants.

(3.) In the appellate Court it was contended On behalf of the applicants that the difference in weights found on reweighing of the empty cart by Sri Man Singh was due to the fact that when the carts were first weighed in the morning by Ram Sundar Lal applicant, some other articles such as sipawa, Ulari and ropes were also weighed which was not done when they were reweighed by the Inspector. In other words, the stand taken by the applicants was that the empty carts were correctly weighed but because they were not properly weighed by the sugarcane inspector this difference had arisen. This contention was rightly rejected by both the lower Courts. They reached a finding that the empty carts were weighed in the same condition both by applicant Ram Sundar Lal and the inspector and their weights were deliberately overstated in order to make a wrongful gain. It is a finding of fact and I see No. reason to disturb it. This contention was also not pressed before me. I am, therefore, satisfied that Ram Sundar applicant when he weighed the empty cart in the morning deliberately overstated the weight in order to secure a wrongful gain for the Nawabganj Sugar Mills. There was thus a clear breach of Rule 96(1)(f) of the U.P. Sugarcane (Regulation of Supply and Purchase) Rules, 1954.