MUSHTAQ AHMAD Vs. REX

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The applicants Mushtaq Ahmad Shahidey and Mursalin were convicted by a Magistrate, 1 class Gonda, in a summary trial under Section 7, Essential Supplies (Temporary Powers) Act of 1946 and sentenced each to rigorous imprisonment for three months and a fine of Rs. 500. They went up in appeal, but their appeal was also dismissed.

(2.) The allegation against the applicants was that on 25 January 1947, in the morning they were seen carrying on carts two bales of chhint cloth towards Koela Basa in Nepal on the Jarwa-Koela Basa Road in the district of Gonda. It is said that the scene of occurrence is 11/2 miles from Koela Basa but within the district of Gonda. The applicants denied that the cloth was being taken to Nepal territory for sale. They said that it was being taken to Jarws Bazar about 41/2 miles away for sale. The defence was not believed.

(3.) It has been contended in this revision that it has been impossible to find out which order has been contravened by the applicants carrying two bales of chhint cloth within the district of Gonda. The learned Assistant Government Advocate was directed to ascertain which order had been contravened. His instructions received after great difficulty are that there has been a breach of Clause 3, United Provinces (Supplementary) Cloth (Control of Movement) Order, 1947. Under Clause 3 of this Order it is provided that: No person or dealer shall carry or cause to be carried or offer for carriage by rail, road or river any cloth from any place in the United Provinces outside the Sector to any place in the Sector or from any place in the Sector to any other place in it except under or in accordance with the terms of a permit issued by the District Magistrate concerned. Sector is defined in the same order as meaning, "the portion of the United Provinces situated to the north and the East of a line running from East to West and North to South respectively parallel to and at a distance of five miles from the Northern and Eastern boundary of the Province." It is clear that under the provisions of this order the applicants must be held to be guilty, but the point is that this order does not apply to this case. This order was published in the U.P. Gazette, Extraordinary, on 22 February, 1947, whereas the applicants were found carrying cloth on 26 January 1947, that is, nearly one month before this order came into force. There is nothing to show that the order was given a retrospective effect.