RAM SARAN JHA Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, who is employed as a Jamadar by the Sakri sugarcane mill at their weigh bridge station at Benipur, was charged with a breach of Rule 18 of (the Bihar and Orissa Sugarcane Rules, 1934. He was convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 300 or in default to undergo simple imprisonment for one month. The rule under which he has been convicted is one of the "rules framed in pursuance of Section 7, Sugarcane Act of 1934. By its preamble that Act is declared to be an Act for regulating the price at which sugarcane intended to be used in the manufacture of sugar may be purchased by and for factories for the purpose of assuring to sugarcane growers a fair price for their produce. Section 3 empowers the Local Government to declare any area to be a controlled area for the purpose of the Act and to fix a minimum [price at which sugarcane may be purchased in any controlled area when intended to be used in the manufacture of sugar. Section 5 of the Act is in the following terms : Whoever, in any controlled area purchases any sugarcane intended for use in a factory area price less than the minimum price fixed therefor by notification under Sub-section (2) of Section 3, or in contravention of any prohibition made under Sub-section (3) of Section 3, shall be punishable with fine which may extend to two thousand rupees.

(2.) Section 7 empowers the Local Government to make rules for the purpose of carrying into effect the objects of the Act. Sub-section (37) of Section 7 empowers the Local Government to provide for a fine not exceeding two thousand rupees to be imposed for a breach of some of the rules. It was not suggested in this case that r.18 is not one of the rules for breach of which the Local Government is empowered to provide for the infliction of a fine. The Local Government of Bihar and Orissa have framed rules under the provisions of Section 7 of the Act and those rules are entitled the Bihar and Orissa Sugarcane Rules, 1934. Rule 18 is in the following terms: Whoever, in circumstances where it would amount in effect to an attempt to evade the provisions of Section 5 of the Act, accepts or obtains, or agrees to accept or attempts to obtain from any person, for himself or for any other person, any gratification, consideration, bonus, set-off, luck money or any other such money whatever, other than legal remuneration, as a motive or reward for weighing or purchasing sugarcane or for making payment therefore, or for showing or forbearing to show in connection with the purchase and weighment of or payment for sugarcane, favour or disfavour to any person shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine which may extend to one thousand rupees.

(3.) It is under this rule that the petitioner has been convicted. It is necessary to state the procedure followed by the sugarcane factory which employed the petitioner in order to understand what his position was vis-a-vis the sugarcane growers. It appears that growers of sugarcane desiring to sell their produce to this factory intimate their desire while the crop is still growing and the factory send one of their officers, called the cane assistant, to inspect the crop and form an estimate of the probable amount of the crop. This estimate, with the name and address of the grower, is entered in a list maintained by the factory. This list, in English and in two of the vernacular languages, is suspended at the factory's weigh-bridge. When the crop has been harvested the grower delivers it at the weigh-bridge where it is weighed, and paid for. But before it is possible for the grower of the cane to have it weighed it is necessary for him to produce to the man in charge of the weigh-bridge what has been called a purji. This purji is in effect a copy of the entry relating to the particular grower in the list already referred to, that is to say, it is an authority to the weighman to receive from a particular person a certain amount of sugarcane on behalf of the factory. It was the duty of the petitioner to make up these purjis and distribute them to the persons whose crops had been assessed by the cane assistant. He was, therefore, in a position to delay the weighing of the cane when brought in the factory or to prevent its delivery altogether by not delivering in time or not delivering at all a purji which would authorise the weighman to weigh and receive the cane.