GHANASHYAM DAS Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition for quashing a criminal case (C, C. No. 5 of 1955/t-64 of 1955) pending in the Court of the Subdivisional Magistrate, Balasore, against the three petitioners. Petitioners 1 and 2 were said to be the Managing Directors of a firm known as the Orissa Steel Corporation, with its office at Soro in the district of Balasore. Petitioner 3 was the Manager of the said firm. The prosecution case against the mwas that sometime in 1950 they, on their application, were allotted quotas of iron and steel by the Central Government in pursuance of Clause 4, Iron and Steel (Control of Production and Distribution) Order, 1941 (hereinafter referred to as the Central Order) for the purpose of using the same for fabricating finished goods at their factory at Soro. Subsequently in 1951 when the Orissa Iron and Steel Products (Control of Prices and Distribution) Order 1951 (hereinafter referred to as the Orissa Order) came into force in the State of Orissa, they were also granted a license under that order for fabricating goods at Soro. This Order was made by the State Government in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 3, Orissa Essential Articles Control and Requisitioning (Temporary Powers) Act, 1950 (Orissa Act 12 of 1951) (hereinafter referred to as the Orissa Act ). It was alleged that during the period between 10-5-1953 and 31-1-1954 the petitioners (I) used iron and steel in contravention of the conditions specified in the Quota Certificate under the Central Order and (2) maintained incomplete and incorrect accounts and also submitted false and inaccurate returns to the competent authorities and thereby contravened the provisions of the Central Order which contravention was punishable under Sections 7 and 10, read with Section 9 of the Essential Supplies (Temporary Powers) Act 1946 (Act 24 of 1946) (hereinafter referred to as the Central Act ). It was further alleged that the aforesaid acts committed by the petitioners during the said period amounted to contravention of the conditions under which the license was granted to them under the Orissa Order and that therefore they were also liable to punishment under Clause 11 of the Orissa Order and Section 10 of the Orissa Act.

(2.) TO appreciate the interesting points of law raised on behalf of the petitioners it is necessary to briefly narrate the legislative history of the Central Act and Order on the one hand and the Orissa Act and Order on the other.

(3.) THE Central Act and Order : The Central Order was first made in 1941 in exercise Of the powers conferred by Sub-rule (2) of Rule 81, Defence of India Rules. When the Defence of India Act, 1939 (Act 35 of 1939) and the Rules made thereunder expired on 30-9-1946, the Governor-General promulgated an Ordinance known as the Essential Supplies (Temporary Powers) -Ordinance 1946 (Ordinance 18 of 1946), conferring power on the Central Government to regulate the production, supply and distribution of some essential commodities as specified in the Ordinance and for trade and commerce therein, in that Ordinance there was an express provision saving all orders made under Sub-rule (2) of Rule 81 of the Defence of India Rules, in respect of the essential commodities specified in that Ordinance. Those orders were deemed to be orders made under the Ordinance and continued in force. The Ordinance was subsequently replaced by the Central Act of 1943 by which also all orders made under the Defence of India Rules and deemed to have continued in force by virtue of the Ordinance, were further deemed, to have been made under the Central Act and to continue in force during the life of that Act. (See Section 17 ). The net result, therefore, was that the Central Order of 1941 was deemed to have been made under the Central Act of 1946 and was continued in force so long as that Act remained in force. The power of the Central Legislature to pass that Act in respect of a matter which was in the Provincial List under the provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935 (See Entries 27 and 29 of List II of that Act) was derived from an Act of Parliament known as the India (Central Government and Legislature) Act, 1946. The Central Act was a temporary Act whose life Was periodically extended by various competent authorities, namely: