HADIBANDHU BEHERA Vs. THE STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a revision against the Appellate judgment of the Additional Sessions Judge of Cuttack, maintaining the conviction and sentence passed on the Petitioner or an offence under Section 409 Indian Penal Code passed by a First Class Magistrate of Cuttack.

(2.) THE Veterinary Department of Government of Orissa are maintaining a Dairy Farm at Khapuria -4 miles from Cuttack town where cows and buffaloes of the Department are kept. The milk produced by these animals is sold at various depots in Cuttack town one of which is at Mangalabag. The procedure for sale of milk to the public appears to be as follows: Printed books containing milk coupons of the denominations of 2 lbs and 1 lbs (each book containing 62 coupons) are sold to the public through the Salesmen in charge of the various milk depots. The public used to present the outer foils of the coupons at the depots and obtain their supplies of milk against those coupons. The salesmen in charge of the depots are entrusted with the sale of these coupons to the public ad the supply of mil to the public on production of the outer foils. Sometimes they sell milk directly to the public. The cash collected by the salesman is to be handed over to the Cashier of the Dairy Farm who is required to deposit the same in the Treasury. All the coupon booklets are first kept at the Khapuria Dairy Farm where a Stock Register of the same is maintained. Whenever any coupon booklets are entrusted to the Salesmen concerned their signatures are obtained in the Stock Register in token of receipt of the same. The salesmen are also required to keep another Register known as "Coupon Sales Book" in which they make necessary entries to show the sale of coupons to the public. Thus at any moment when an inspecting officer checks the work of a salesman the latter must be able to account for all the coupon books received by him from the Dairy Farm, either by showing their sale to the public as recorded in the Coupon Sales Book maintained by him or by the production of unsold coupon books remaining in his custody. These milk coupons are as good as cash because on their production by a party he is entitled to the supply of the quantity of milk mentioned in the coupon. They are therefore clearly valuable security as defined in Section 30 of the Indian Penal Code, and in any case would amount to movable property. The outer foils of the coupons, delivered to the salesman by the public are sent to the Dairy Farm and preserved there in cans. From a scrutiny of these outer foils, along with the record of coupon books sold to the salesmen as shown in the Stock Book kept at Khapuria Farm, it would be possible to know the exact number of coupons which a particular salesman should account for.

(3.) TO establish the charge against the Petitioner, the prosecution has relied mainly on: the evidence of the Storekeepers at Khapuria Dairy Farm (P.Ws. 1 and 2) who proved the entries in the Stock Register (Exts. 1 series and 2 series) to show that the Petitioner acknowledged receipt of the coupon books, and also on the evidence of the Assistant Superintendent of Milk Supply at Mangalbagh (P.W. 3) to the effect that when he verified the Coupon Sales Book maintained by the Petitioner at Manglabagh on 31st October 1953 he found that 88 2 -lb coupon book and 248 one -lb coupon books were not accounted for. His note to that effect (Ext. 3 -a) was accepted as correct by the Petitioner (Ext. 3 -b). He also found 36 unsold coupon books there. The number of unaccounted for one -lb coupon books was subsequently reduced as come more coupon books were found.