FAUJA SINGH RALLA SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner, Fauja Singh, was convicted by the Special Railway Magistrate, Ambala, on 8th of March, 1960 for unlawful possession of 23 seers of crushed poppy-heads and was awarded four months' rigorous imprisonment together with a fine of Rs. 200 as punishment. This order of the trial Magistrate was affirmed on appeal by the learned Sessions Judge and now the petitioner has come up in revision.

(2.) THE petitioner's counsel has not challenge ed the concurrent finding of the Courts below that crushed poppy-heads weighing 23 seers were recovered from Fauja Singh.

(3.) HER sole contention in this case is that the possession of, crushed poppy-heads is not punishable, and it is only the possession of capsules of poppy that is prohibited. Reliance in this connection has been placed upon a decision of this Court reported as The State v. Sohan Lal. That decision was given by a Division Bench on a consideration of the definition of the word 'opium' as it then occurred in the Opium Act (I of 1878) and the rules framed thereunder. The learned Counsel forgets that subsequent to that decision the definition of opium contained in Section 3 of the Opium Act has been amended by the Opium Laws (Amendment) Act (52 of 1957 ). The relevant portion of Section 3 of the Opium Act (1 of 1878), as it stood before the amendment which was relied upon in , read as follows: