RAMAUTAR LAL Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This rule was directed against an order of conviction of the petitioner under Rule 81(4) Defence of India Rules read with Clause 3, Cotton Cloth and Yarn Dealers (Licensing and Control) Order, 1944, as amended by the Bihar Cloth and Yarn Control Order, 1945.

(2.) The allegations giving rise to this prosecution were shortly that the petitioner was found storing and selling standard cloth for a price more than its controlled price. The petitioner was a licensee as a general cloth merchant but had not the special license for storing and selling standard cloth. The acts consisting in the facts stated made out two offences (1) under the Central Cotton Cloth and Yarn Control order for having sold a cloth for more than its controlled price and (2) for contravention of Clause 3 a Bihar Cloth and Yarn Control order for having dealt in cloth without a license.

(3.) Previous to this case another prosecution had been started against the petitioner for contravention of the Central Cloth and Yarn Control order for having sold the cloth for a price more than the controlled price. The case, however, could not end in conviction inasmuch as sanction of the Provincial Government as required under Clause 23 of the order had not been obtained. Having been thus unsuccessful in the previous prosecution, the present had been started for the offence consisting in contravention of Clause 3, Provincial Cloth Control order arising out of the identical acts of the petitioner. This prosecution has ended in conviction against which this rule has been issued.