BHUTNATH CHOUDHURY Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision arises from the following facts. On 19th March 1947, Hazra Choudhury & Co. booked five cases of stationery goods at Juggannath Ghat for despatch by river to Dibrugarh Ghat in Assam. The goods were seized and found to consist of 155-dozen exercise books and 13 dozen registers. It was also found that they were despatched without a permit in contravention of Clause 2 of Notification No. 4476 com. dated 5th December 1944, published in the Calcutta Gazette on 9th December 1944. The petitioner, the proprietor of Hazra Choudhury & Co., was arrested and sent up for trial. On being charged under Section 7, Essential Supplies Act, 1946, the accused pleaded not guilty, his defence being that the despatch of the exercise books was not barred by law.

(2.) The defence did not produce any evidence and, as the learned trying Magistrate observes, "the facts were not at all challenged by the defence." The trial Court found that the accused had booked for despatch to Assam without any permit 155 dozen exercise books and 13 dozen registers. Samples of the exercise books and registers were exhibited and examined by the trial Court. The Court found that some of the paper of the exercise books bore water-marks of the Titaghur Paper Mills and of the Bengal Paper Mills and concluded, as all the exercise books were similar in make, that they were manufactured from paper made in, India. The Court found no water-mark on the paper from which the registers had been made and held that they were not within the prohibition. The Court accordingly convicted the accused under Section 7, . Essential Supplies Act, in respect of the exercise books, sentenced him to pay a fine of Rs. 100, in default, rigorous imprisonment for one month, and ordered the exercise books to be forfeited to His Majesty but the registers to be released.

(3.) A copy of the Notification is with the papers. The material part runs as follows: