MD ASHIRUDDIN Vs. STATEN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE accused petitioner Md. Ashiruddin was convicted on July 11,1976 by a sub-divisional judicial Magistrate, Islampur under section 4 (1) of the Bengal Criminal Law (Industrial Areas) Amendment Act, 1942 (hereinafter 'the Act') for having f. n his possession on June 5, 1974 two silver bars weighing 2. 8kgs. and 3. 55 kgs. respectively which he was carrying in a portfolio bag whilst proceeding in a bus from Islampur to Kishenganj, and for the possession of which be could not give any satisfactory explanation. The learned Magistrate sentenced him to suffer rigorous imprisonment for six months and directed the seized bars of silver to be forfeited to the State. Against the order of conviction the accused petitioner preferred an appeal and Shri P. Dutta, Sessions Judge, west Dinajpur at Balurghat by an order dated August 28. 1976 dismissed the appeal and upheld the order of conviction and sentence as also the order of forfeiture passed by the learned Magistrate. The order of the learned Sessions judge has been impugned in this Rule.

(2.) MR. Pradip Kumar Ghose, learned Advocate appearing on behalf of the accused petitioner, has submitted that the place viz. Islampur, where the accused petitioner was apprehended with the two bars of silver was ceded from bihar to West Bengal in the year 1976, long after the Act came into force, and without, a specific notification under section 2 of the Act declaring the said area to be an industrial area, section 4 (1) of the Act would be inapplicable and as such the conviction and the trial of the petitioner were without jurisdiction.

(3.) THIS point was also raised before the lower appellate Court. The learned Judge was of the view that by virtue of the West Bengal transferred territories (Assimilation of Laws) Act, 1958, all laws in force in West Bengal including the Act were extended to the transferred territories, including the area in question viz. Islampur within Chapra police Station, and as such the Act was in force in the said area at the relevant time.