EMPEROR Vs. PURSHOTTAM HARJIVAN SHAH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an application in revision by accused Nos. 1 and 2 against their convictions and sentences under Section 13 (1) read with Section 6 of the Hoarding and Profiteering Prevention Ordinance. The case for the prosecution was that accused: No.1; was the proprietor, and accused No.2 was a salesman of P. H. Shah, Silk Merchants, in Bombay, and that on September 1, 1944, accused No.2 on behalf of accused No.1 sold nine yards of artificial silk dress fabric at a price of Rs. 11 per yard when the landed cost, as certified by the Assistant Controller General was Rs. 4-8-0: per yard. The defence of accused No.1 was that he had purchased the articles at Rs. 9-8-0 per yard from K. Manilal and 'company and hence the profit earned by him was less than twenty per cent. It was also urged that the landed cost certificate was not duly proved because Mr. Kedarnath the Assistant Controller General who had given the certificate had not been examined to prove that the articles in respect of which he gave the certificate were the very articles which were the subject matter of this offence.

(2.) THE sanction required under Section 14 was granted by Mr. S. N. Mehta, the Deputy Controller General of Civil Supplies in Bombay. It does not seem to have been contended in the lower Court that the sanction was invalid; but it was urged in this Court that it was illegal on the ground that the officer who granted the sanction, Mr. S. N. Mehta, the Deputy Controller General, was not lawfully empowered to grant it, as the notification of the Government of India under which he purported to grant the sanction was ultra vires, inasmuch as it was not issued according to the provisions of Section 14 of the Ordinance.

(3.) IN our opinion it is not correct to say that such a presumption applies in the present case. The presumption under Section 114, ill. (e), is that of the regularity of the official acts, whether judicial or executive, and not that of the acts themselves being done. If, for instance, a notification is issued under the powers given by law, there is a presumption that it was regularly published and promulgated in the manner in which it was required to be done. But there is no presumption that it was issued according to the terms of the section which empowers it. IN a very recent decision in Emperor v. Gwilt (1944) 47 Bom. L. R. 431 it has been held by this Court that: the meaning of Section 114, 111. (e), is that if an official act is proved to have been done, it will be presumed to have been regularly done. It does not raise a presumption that an act was done of which there is no evidence and the proof of which is essential to the case. And that is also the principle underlying the decisions of the other High Courts, for instance, Jagarnath v. King-Emperor (1944) I. L. R. 24 Pat. 29, Narendra Lal Khan v. Jogi Hari (1905) I. L. R. 32 Cal. 1107 and Kumari v. Raj Kumer [1934] A. I. R. Ran. 207. IN the present case the act required to be proved is the empowering of an officer not below the rank of a District Magistrate to grant sanction. It must be proved by the prosecution that the officer empowered held a rank not below that of a District Magistrate. No such proof has been given. Such a rank, as I said before, has not been created either in the definition of the Controller General or in Section 14 itself. Assuming that the rank of a District Magistrate can be created without investment of powers of a District Magistrate, it must be created lawfully before the empowerment can take place. A rank may be created or recognised statutorily, as for example, in Section 14, Section 166. and Section 167 of the Criminal 'procedure Code and Section 35 of the Bombay Civil Courts Act. The term " rank " as used in Section 14 does not, in our opinion, mean social rank as in the warrant of precedence. As the prosecution has not thus proved that the officers mentioned in the notification hold a rank not below that-of a District Magistrate, the notification issued by the Government is, in our opinion, invalid and ultra vires, with the result that the sanction is also of the same nature. As regards the individual officer, Mr. S. N. Mehta, it appears that before he was appointed as Deputy Controller General he was at one time a Deputy Commissioner in the Central Provinces and it is said that as such he was holding a rank not below that of a District Magistrate. Even assuming it is so, the sanction is given by him under the powers conferred on him by the notification,, and if the notification is bad, the sanction granted by him is also illegal, even if he enjoyed at one time the powers of a District Magistrate. For these reasons we are of opinion that the sanction granted is invalid, and as a valid sanction is a condition precedent for prosecution under the Hoarding and Profiteering Prevention Ordinance, the prosecution fails, with the result that the convictions and the sentences of the accused must be set aside.