STATE Vs. NAND LAL AND ANR.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal by the State under Section 417, Criminal P.C. against the order of Magistrate, Ist Class, Sangrur, acquitting Mathra Das and Nand Lal, respondents, of an offence under Section 7, Essential Supplies Ordinance.. As the result of a trap laid and raid conducted by the District Magistrate, Sangrur, on 5th at the Water -Mills of Nidampur three persons, namely Rakha Ram, Mathra Das and Nand Lal were hauled up for having sold 10 seers of wheat flour for Rs. 5/ - i.e. at the rate of Rs. 20/ - per maund while the rate fixed for the commodity for the place those days was Rs. 13/2/ - per maund. The currency note of Rs. 5/ - signed by the District Magistrate, which had been handed over to Kahan Singh and Kaku Singh the presumptive purchasers and decoy witnesses employed by the District Magistrate, was recovered after the sale from Nand Lal and wheat flour weighing 10 seers from the two witnesses. Nand Lal is stated to have actually weighed and passed on the flour to the witnesses in the presence of Mathra Das, No case was held to have been made out against Rakha Ram and he was, therefore, discharged. As regards the respondents, the trial Magistrate believed the prosecution evidence in its entirety and found it to be established beyond doubt that they had sold 10 seers of wheat flour to Kalian Singh and Kaku Singh. The respondents were, however, acquitted of the charge because in the opinion of the learned Magistrate no rate for the sale of wheat and consequently of flour had been fixed under the Essential Supplies Ordinance for the particular place where it was sold. He further held that the rates fixed for village Nidampur, which according to him only meant the Abadi of the village, could not be regarded as the maximum rate for the sale of the commodities at the Water Mills.

(2.) THE same authority under the very same powers made another order on 1 -6 -1950 which was published as Notification No. 176 in the State Gazette of 11 -6 -1950. Maximum rates of wheat and bailey for different mandis of the State upto 30 -6 -1950 and from 1 -7 -1950 till further orders were fixed by this Notification. The maximum rate of wheat operative from 1 -7 -1950 for Mandi Bhawanigarh was Rs. 12/10/ - per maund.

(3.) I cannot convince myself to agree with the learned trial Magistrate that the use of the words "or any other area" along with Mandi and village in Clause 5(a) of the said Notification lends support to the conclusion arrived at by him. It is correct that these words do not find place in Clause 4 and the effect of it is that no maximum wholesale price of the commodities can be regarded as fixed for places which do not fall within a village and consequently the price of flour for those places. One can readily conceive of an area, within or beyond a radius of five miles from a mandi, which may not be included in a village, but that does not mean that the word village was used in a limited sense and was not meant to include the area appertaining to it.