GANESH CHANDRA SIKDAR Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this case the petitioners before us have been convicted in respect of the manufacture and sale of a liquid substance spoken of as Mrita Sanjivani Sudha and have been sentenced under Section 46(a) of the Bengal Excise Act V of 1909 each to pay a fine of Rs. 200 or in default to undergo six weeks rigorous imprisonment.

(2.) The manufacture and sale is admitted and the contention of the petitioners, who are Kavirajes by profession, is that Mrita Sanjivani Sudha is a beneficent drug, prepared in accordance with a formula to be found in an Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia, and used for medicinal purposes only. The ingredients, it is said, are gur, ginger, betel nut and various barks, and after a certain period of fermentation from this base with certain additions in the shape of spices, crushed fruits, and balela skins the finished product is obtained by a process of distillation. The preparation, there is evidence, is prescribed for women suffering from fever or bowel complaints after childbirth and other virtues claimed for it are that it stimulates the appetite, aids digestion, and when taken at bed time soothes the wakeful.

(3.) It may be conceded that the preparation possesses all these virtues, but the question still remains whether it is an excisable article within the meaning of the Bengal Excise Act. In that Act excisable article has been defined as meaning "any liquor or intoxicating drug as defined by or under this Act" and in Section 2, Clause (14), as amended by Bengal Act VII of 1914, "liquor has again been defined as meaning liquid consisting of or containing alcohol" and as including various specified substances.