- (1.) ORDER :- This Criminal Misc. Petition has been preferred by the petitioners against the order dated 5-9-95 passed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sri Ganganagar in Criminal Case No. 294/95 titled State v. Sohan Lal and others whereby the learned Magistrate has taken cognizance of offences punishable under Sections 17(1)(a) and 18(1)(c) read with Section 29 of the Insecticides Act, 1968 (for short "the Act").
(2.) Briefly stated the facts giving rise to the present petition are that the petitioner No. 1 is a manufacturer and supplier of insecticides while petitioner Nos. 2 and 3 are its Directors functioning at Delhi. Shri Ramdas Garg, who is Proprietor of M/s. Aggarwal Pesticides Store, Sri Ganganagar, is a local distributor of the insecticides produced by the petitioner-Company who had further supplied such production/insecticides to its dealer Mohan Lal, Proprietor of M/s. New Durga Pesticides, Sri Ganganagar.
(3.) Shri B. D. Sharma, Insecticide Inspector, on 4-12-93 inspected the premises of M/s. New Durga Pesticides, Sri Ganganagar, being a licence holder, to deal in such insecticides, and took a sample of BHC 10% Dust Batch No. 120 manufactured by the petitioner No. 1 from intact sealed pack weighing 10 Kgs. as per the provisions of the Act and its Rules framed in 1971 and the sample so taken was divided into three equal portions which were accordingly packed and sealed. One portion of the same was delivered to the owner of the firm while remaining two portions of the sample were detained by the Insecticide Inspector. One portion of the sample was despatched to the Pesticides Laboratory at Bikaner on 8-12-1993 and, after analysis and testing of the portion of the sample so sent, vide its report dated 25-1-94, the State Pesticide Testing Laboratory, Bikaner confirmed that the sample so forwarded did not conform to the I.S.I. Specification and hence it was confirmed to be misbranded. Accordingly, while despatching copy of the testing report, M/s. New Durga Pesticides and so also the petitioners were informed about the sample of their product and dealership having been confirmed to be misbranded and to show cause as to why should criminal action be not initiated against them. M/s. New Durga Pesticides vide its reply dated 18-2-94 maintained that the BHC 10% Dust packing was manufactured by the petitioner- Company which were further distributed and supplied to them by the local distributor M/s. Aggarwal Pesticide Store, Sri Ganganagar on 29-10-93 and in case the same was misbranded, it was without their knowledge, connivance or any fault. As regards the petitioners, vide their reply dated 4-6-94, they admitted that they are the manufacturers of BHC 10% Dust as per the I.S.I. specification and releasing the material for sale but only after testing in their laboratory. It was further stated that they had fully tested their counter sample of the BHC 10% Dust and it was found that the product was perfectly all right and, therefore, it was disputed that the product of insecticides so manufactured, supplied and, lastly, sold by the firm of Ganganagar was at all misbranded and, accordingly, the finding of the testing report of the Pesticides Laboratory, Bikaner was challenged with a request that in view of the provisions of Sections 23(3) and 24(4) of the Act, the counter-sample for re-testing of the said product be sent to the Central Insecticides Laboratory under intimation to the petitioners who volunteered to bear all charges for re-testing of the same. It was further informed that date of expiry of this product was Jan., 1995. However, the Insecticide Inspector, Sri Ganganagar did not respond to the replies sent by the aforesaid parties including the petitioners and while sitting over the matter, filed a complaint under the aforesaid sections in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sri Ganganagar as late as on 29-6-95 against the manufacturers, distributor and the dealer aforementioned and, consequently, the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, vide his order dated 5-9-95, took cognizance of the said offences against all these persons including the petitioners and ordered for issuance of summonses for their appearance on 20-10-95 and hence, being aggrieved by the same, with the request of invocation of inherent powers of this Court, this petition has been filed.;