RAMANLAL RATHI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition for revision of an order of a learned Additional Sessions Judge setting aside a conviction and ordering a retrial.

(2.) The petitioner was charged under Section 7, Essential Supplies Act, for contravention of para. 4 (1), West Bengal Cloth and Yarn Movement Control Order, 1947. He was found guilty by a learned Magistrate and was sentenced to two years' rigorous imprisonment and to pay a fine of Rs. 1000. In default of payment of the fine he was ordered to undergo a further period of six months' rigorous imprisonment. Certain cloth which was the subject matter of the prosecution was ordered to be confiscated.

(3.) The case for the prosecution was that the petitioner came to Bongaon which is near the frontier between India and Pakistan on 28-11-1947 bringing with him ten bales of new textiles goods which were loaded in a truck. On 29-11-1947 the petitioner went to the Bongaon Police Station and sought for permission to move the goods from India into Pakistan. The Police referred the matter to the Sub-Divisional Officer who ordered the petitioner to be prosecuted as he had failed to produce any permit; or authority for the movement of the goods from India into Pakistan. The petitioner was then arrested and produced before a Magistrate on 30-11-1947. Before the Magistrate he produced a permit, Ex. 3 purporting to have been issued by the Directorate of Textiles and bearing the signature of one W. Bennet, Assistant Director (Movement). According to the prosecution this permit had never been issued by the Directorate of Textiles. The defence case was that it was a genuine permit authorising the petitioner to move the property with a view to taking it to Pakistan.