PARMESHWAR PRASAD CHAUDHURY Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner has been convicted Under Section 16(1) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for one month and to pay a fine of Rs, 300/- in default to further rigorous imprisonment for one month.

(2.) THE allegation is that on the 6th December, 1958, the petitioner was found to have been storing in his shop, situate in Mohalla Bagmali within Hamper town, mustard oil which, after an examination by a Public Analyst was found to be adulterated with linseed. It was Dr. Hazra (P. W. I) who was the Health Officer for Hajipur town and was supposed to be acting as the Food Inspector within the meaning of Section 9 of the aforesaid Act that took sample of 12 ounces of oil from the petitioner's shop. He distributed the oil into three phials, gave one to the petitioner, sent one to the Public Analyst and kept one with himself. After report of the Public Analyst, Dr. Hazra filed a case against the petitioner who was tried by a Magistrate 1st Class and convicted and sentenced in the manner aforesaid. On appeal his conviction has been confirmed by the learned Sessions Judge of Muzaffarpur by his judgment dated the 4th June, 1960.

(3.) MR. Harinandan Singh next contended that Dr. Hazra had no authority to act as Food Inspector and, therefore, for that reason also, he was not competent to have taken any sample of the oil. As provided in Section 9 of the Act, a Food Inspector is required to be appointed by the State Government by a notification in the official Gazette and it is the admitted position that Dr. Hazra I had not been appointed as a Food Inspector by any Government notification. Reliance was, how-lever, placed on a letter (Ext. 4) which the Special Officer of Hajipur Municipality, Sri G. P. Sinha, bad sent to the Government of Bihar in L. S. G. Department reoommending for the appointment of Dr. Hazra as Food Inspector within the limits of Hajipur Municipality Under Section 9 of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. A copy of this letter was forwarded by the Special Officer with Memo No. 498, dated the 15th November, 1958, to the Assistant Director of Public Health T. D. Muzafarpur and it appears that on that basis alone Dr. Hazra had started functioning as a Food Inspector. This was wholly without jurisdiction. MR. Hazra could not act as Food Inspector until the notification appointing him to be a Food Inspector had been duly published. He had, therefore, no authority to take any sample of the oil purporting to act as Food Inspector. The learned Judge has taken a most perverse view Sat Dr. Hazra had authority to act as Food Inspector only on the basis of the letter referred to above.