JAGDISH RAI JAM Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Jagdish Rai Jam, the proprietor of M/s Jam Rice Mills, Choorwali. District Jalandhar, the appellant here, stands convicted for an offence under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, for having violated the provisions of sub rule (2-) of rule 7 of the Punjab Food grain Dealers and Licensing Order, 1978 and thereby contravened Section 3 (1) (d) (h) and(i) of the said Act. of he charge being that the appellant had not properly maintained the record of rice and ricebran and further that the rice and ricebran at the rice Sheller, did not tally with the registers maintained by him. A sentence of one yearTs rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1,000/- was imposed upon the appellant if this behalf.

(2.) The case against the appellants is that on August 31, 1984, the Food and Supplies Officer Shri Jaswant Sing Sandhu accompanied by the Assistant Food and Supplies Officer Shree Pal Pathak and Parshotam Singh. Sub-Inspector of the department went to the premises of M/s Jam Rice Mills. The appellant Jagdish Rai Jam was not present there, but his munim Inderjit was there. Inderjit was asked to show the record, but no record was produced. Later, on physical verification, 88 quintals of rice and 9 quintals of rice bran were found lying there. A memo to this effect was prepared besides a report signed by the munim Inderjit regarding the verification of the stock at the premises. This report being exhibit PB.

(3.) It is said that on September 4, 1984, the said munim Inderjit produced three registers before the Food and Supplies Officer. These being Stock Register, exhibit P/i of rice IR 8; P/2 of rice PR-106 and exhibit Pi3 regarding ricebran. These registers contained entries up to August 30, 1984 but there were no entries therein from August 31,1984 to September 4, 1984. The first part of the charge, namely that the registers had not been properly maintained was sought to be founded upon the omission of entries in these registers for the period August 31, 1984 to September 4, 1984.