P.S.Pattar, J. - (1.) This is a revision petition filed by Sant Lal son of Mehnga Ram of Messrs Adarsh Karyana Store, Railway Road, Barara, District Ambala, against the judgment dated March 20, 1974 of the Additional Sessions Judge, Ambala dismissing his appeal against the judgment dated Dec. 24, 1973 of the Judicial Magistrate 1st Class, Ambala Cantt., whereby he convicted him under section 16(1)(a)(i) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 and sentenced him to six months' rigorous imprisonment and to pay Rs. 1000.00 as fine and in default of payment of fine to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for three months.
(2.) The facts of this case are that Food Inspector M.L. Kapoor along with the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Ambala went on Aug. 12, 1972 to the shop of the petitioner at Barara along with one Amar Nath and he was found in possession of four kilograms of multi-coloured chewing sweet tablets for public sale at his shop. The Food Inspector after disclosing his identity gave notice Exhibit P.A. to him and purchased 600 grams of sweet tablets on payment of Rs. 1.95 vide receipt Exhibit P.B. issued by the accused in his favour. These tablets were divided into three equal parts and were packed in three dry and clean bags and all the three packets were separately sealed in the presence of the accused and the witnesses. One sealed packet was handed over to the accused vide memo Exhibit P.C, the second sealed packet was sent to the Public Analyst and the third was deposited with the Deputy Chief Medical Officer for safe custody. The Public Analyst in his report Exhibit P.D. gave the opinion that the sweet tablets were adulterated with prohibited red and blue colour. Complaint was made against the accused. The Judicial Magistrate held that the accused was guilty of the offence under section 16(1)(a)(i) of the Food Adulteration Act and he convicted and sentenced him as mentioned above. The appeal of the accused against this judgment was dismissed by the Additional Sessions Judge. Thereafter, the petitioner Sant Lal filed this revision petition, which was admitted, as regards sentence only.
(3.) It is undisputed that the petitioner Sant Lal does not manufacture sweet chewing tablets. According to the petitioner, he purchased four kilograms of tablets from Harbans Lal D.W. 2, who is the proprietor of Harbans Lal and Sons. This witness stated on oath that he used to manufacture sweets and the petitioner Sant Lal used to purchase them from his shop and that vide cash memo Exhibit D.1., Sant Lal purchased four kilograms of such sweet chewing tablets from him on July 24, 1972. These tablets were recovered from the petitioner on Aug. 12, 1972 i.e., about 18/19 days after the purchase. Harbans Lal, however, stated that no warranty was printed on the receipt Exhibit D.1 that these tablets mentioned in the invoice were warranted to be of the nature and quality, which these purport to be. The petitioner is a small retail seller, who purchases such tablets from Harbans Lal D.W. 2 and sells the same. The petitioner is not a previous convict under section 16 of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. Taking all these facts and circumstances into consideration, the sentence of imprisonment of the petitioner is reduced to one month only. However, his sentence of fine or imprisonment in default of fine is maintained. With this modification in the sentence this revision petition is dismissed. Petition dismissed.;