SANTOSH KUMAR JAIN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision petition arises out of the conviction of petitioner Santosh Kumar Jain under Section 186, Penal Code. Santosh Kumar Jain is one of the Directors and the General Manager of Jagdishpur Zamindari Company, which Company holds the Bihta Sugar Factory as a lessee under a lease. The petitioner was prosecuted for offering obstruction to Mr. T. C. Puri, the then District Magistrate of Patna, and Mr. H.N. Thakur, the then Special Officer in charge of Rationing, Patna, in the discharge of their public function when they wanted to execute a seizure order passed, by the Government of Bihar, Supply and Price Control Department.

(2.) According to the prosecution case, Jagdishpur Zamindari Company bad deliberately failed to comply with the direction issued by the Chief Controller of Prices and Supplies, Bihar, for supply of sugar to approved dealers under allocation orders made from time to time. Subsequently, the Government of Bihar had to pass an order dated 5th December 1947 for the seizure of 5000 maunds of sugar out of the stock held by the Company. It was further said that Mr. Puri, the then District Magistrate of Patna, and Mr. Thakur, the then Special Officer in charge of rationing, Patna, went to the premises of the Bihta Sugar Factory on 5th December 1917, for the purpose of carrying out the order passed by the Government of Bihar as aforesaid. B. 0. Jain and some other employees of the Company refused to accept a copy of the seizure order whereupon the copy of the order had to be left on a table in the office of the factory. On 6th December 1947, when the two officers went to remove the sugar seized, they found that a number of obstructions had been placed on the roads leading to the factory godown, and they also found that rails and fish plates had been removed from the siding which went near the factory godown with the result that it was not possible for them to arrange for the removal of the seized sugar. It was further said by the prosecution that sugar had been decontrolled from 8th December 1947, and to obstruct the removal of the sugar till the decontrol order had come into force was the motive which had led the petitioner to arrange for the obstructions as aforesaid.

(3.) The case for the prosecution further was that Santosh Kumar Jain had told Mr. Puri that he was determined to resist the taking away of the sugar by all conceivable means. This attitude of the petitioner led the said officers to seek help of the police, and it was with the assistance of the police that the obstructions placed on roads leading to the factory godown and the railway line which had been tampered with could be removed and the carrying out of the order made possible. On these allegations the petitioner along with one B.C. Jain had been placed on their trial before Mr. K.K. Datta Subordinate Judge, Magistrate, first class, Patna,