STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH Vs. PREM CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By his judgment of March 1, 1983, the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Dharamshala, convicted Prem Chand for an offence punishable under section 16 (i) (a) of the Food Adulteration Act, 1954 and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000. The allegation on the basis whereof Prem Chand was convicted was that on August 21, 1981, the Food Inspector had purchased 660 ml. milk from him for analysis. The sample of milk was found to be adulterated.

(2.) Prem Chand assailed the order of his conviction in Criminal Appeal No. 14 of 1983. This appeal was allowed by the learned Sessions Judge, Dharamshala, on December 18, 1984. The learned Judge set aside the conviction as also the sentence awarded to Prem Chand. The learned Judge based his decision on two principal points. First, that it was not established from the evidence of the prosecution that the sample of milk, which was analysed initially by the Public Analyst and later by the Director, Central Food Laboratory, was not a representative sample. The reason for this view was that it was in evidence that the milk was contained in a drum, which weighed 30 to 35 kg. and was of the height of 2 to 2 -1/2 ft. The Food Inspector had said that before taking the sample this quantity of milk was stirred with a measure (an instrument of the length of l0) but Shri Krishan Kumar (CW 1) had stated that the Food Inspector had not stirred the milk before taking the sample.

(3.) The second reason which commended itself to the learned Judge was that it was not established on the record of the case that before the sample was sent to the Director Central Food Laboratory the safeguards contemplated by section 13 (2 -B) of the Act had been ensured by the Court.