SWATANTER KUMAR, J. - (1.) I have heard learned counsel for the parties.
(2.) THE undisputed facts appearing on record are that a sample of Dimethoate- 30% was taken from M/s Thakar Chemicals (Manufacturer) on 11.8.1992. Copy of the analyst report along with show cause notice was sent to the accused on 5.11.1992. The accused in reply thereto made a request vide letter dated 12.11.1992 that 2nd sample be sent to the Central Laboratory for testing. The complaint in this case was filed on 16.8.1995, while the shelf life of the sample itself expired in the month of June, 1993. The accused appeared in court on 14.11.1995. Thereafter, the present petition under Section 482 of Code of Criminal Code read with Article 227 of the Constitution of India was filed for quashing the complaint as valuable right of the accused-petitioners to have the second sample tested in accordance with law has been defeated by the own default of the department, in launching the complaint. As already noticed, the facts are hardly in dispute in the present case. The accused has a definite legal right under Section 24 of the Insecticides Act, 1968 (hereinafter referred as the Act) to get the second sample tested from the Central Laboratory. In the present case, another factor is that the complaint was filed on 16.8.1995 after the expiry of more than three years from the date on which the sample was taken. The department has rendered no explanation whatsoever in the complaint and secondly shelf life of the sample had expired nearly two years prior to the institution of the complaint itself. Serious prejudice has been caused to the right of the petitioner as a definite right given under the law to the accused to get the 2nd sample tested has been defeated by the department itself.
(3.) AT this stage, it may be appropriate to refer to the judgment of this court rendered in the case of Mewa Singh v. Prithipal Singh Insecticides, 1994(1) RCR 94, where the court held as under :- "...there is no escape but to held that in cases where the sample of insecticides was first got tested from the insecticides analyst, the filing of the complaint after the expiry of the life of the insecticide would result in debarring the accused of his valuable of getting the sample re-tested from the Central Insecticides Laboratory as provided under sub-section (4) of Section 24." ;