MUNICIPAL COMMITTEE, AMRITSAR Vs. RANJIT SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal by the Municipal Committee, Amritsar, against the judgment dated the 27th of October, 1966, of Shri Sher Singh Sindhu, Judicial Magistrate 1st Class, Amritsar acquitting the respondent of an offence under Section 16(1)(a)(i) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 (hereinafter referred to as the Act).

(2.) THE prosecution case may be stated thus. On the 29th of October, 1963, at 8.30 A.M Shri Krishan Kumar, Food Inspector, Municipal Committee. Amritsar (P.W. 1) was present near the Amritsar Town Hall when the respondent came there riding a bicycle on which he was carrying a quantity of milk contained in a ualtohi The Food Inspector stopped the respondent who told him on enquiry that the article contained in the valtohi was cow milk intended for sale. The Food Inspector then purchased 660 mls. of the milk for analysis against payment of Rs. 0 -50 Paise. This quantity of milk was divided into three equal parts, each one of which was transferred into a bottle and sealed. One of the bottles was sent to the Public Analyst who found its content to be milk having 5 per cent of fat and only 7.02 per cent of nonfatty solids which, according to the prescribed standard, should have had the minimum percentage of 8.5.

(3.) THE stand of the respondent was that he was not a milk -seller but a student and that the milk in question was to be delivered to Sohan Singh free of charge at the instance of the respondent's brother on the occasion of the dhaman ceremony of the son of the said Sohan Singh. He also averred that the milk had been violently stirred, that the sample was taken from the upper layer thereafter and that no witness was present at the time.