EMPEROR Vs. AMRIT BANASPATI CO LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal from a judgment of the learned Presidency Magistrate, Second Additional Court, Mazagaon, delivered on February 27, 1946, whereby he convicted both the appellants of an offence under one of the notifications with regard to supplies made under Rule 81 (4) of the Defence of India Rules, 1939, and he imposed a fine on appellant No.1, which is a company, of Rs. 10,000 and on appellant No.2, who is the branch manager of the company in Bombay, of Rs. 1,000 and in default two months' simple imprisonment.

(2.) THE question involved is an extremely short one, though it is by no means free from difficulty. THE notification which it is alleged has been infringed is dated May 21, 1943, and it bears the No.48-IV, and it is in these terms: In exercise of the powers conferred by Sub-rule (2) of Rule 81 of the Defence of India Rules, the Government of Bombay is pleased to direct that no person holding on his own account, or on account of, or in partnership with any other person, any stocks of groundnuts (in shell) and groundnut seeds exceeding 5 Bengal Maunds in quantity at any godown or other place of storage in the City of Bombay or in the Bombay Suburban District, shall remove from the said godown or place or dispose of the said stocks or any portion thereof, without the written permission of the Government of Bombay.

(3.) QUITE clearly if the words in this notifiaction are to be construed in the sense of their primary meaning "to alienate" or "to sell" or "to transfer", no offence has been committed; on the other hand, if they are to be construed in the sense of "getting rid of", then it could not be said that the appellants, after they had crushed these 12,595 bags, still had in stock 12,595 bags of groundnuts in shell.