ANANTRAM AND ORS. Vs. THE STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN these petitions the Petitioners, five in all, seek a revision of the judgment of the First Class Magistrate, Angul, convicting them under Section 7 of the Essential Supplies (Temporary Powers) Act, 1946 (Act XXIV of 1946), and sentencing them to various amounts of fine.

(2.) THE first four Petitioners, namely, Hunantram, Sohan Lal, Bani Ram and Kishan Ram, belong to a trading family carrying on business in cloth and yarn at Dhenkanal, under the name and style of Nandaram Hanantram. Petitioners 1 to 4 are the sons of Nandaram and are the proprietors of he firm. They have also a branch of their firm at Angul, and Petitioner, Paramananda Misra, is their local agent at Angul. A 11 the Petitioners have been found guilty of having contravened an order passed under Clause 5 of the Orissa Cotton Cloth Control Order, 1948, read with Orissa Government Notification No. 29986 ST., dated 30th July 1946.

(3.) THE plea taken by Petitioners 1 to 4 was that they were not personally aware of the alleged transactions and that Petitioners 2 to 4 in particular were not licensees under the Orissa Cotton Cloth Control Order. Petitioner No. 5, Paramananda Misra, denied that he was the agent of the Petitioner's firm. His plea was that he was merely a scribe employed by the firm for writing out the cash memos at the shop at Angul.