Shri Vivek Singh, counsel for the applicant.

Transcription

1 MCRC No.5788/2015 Shri Vivek Singh, counsel for the applicant. Shri Mukesh Parwal, counsel for the respondent/state. This is the first bail application filed by applicant under section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for grant of bail. The accused/applicant apprehends his arrest by Police Station Petlawad, District - Jhabua in Crime No.253/2015 under section 3/7 of Essential Commodities Act. According to the prosecution story, present applicant is running business of Printing Press having his shop-cumworkplace at Petlawad, Raipuria Road in name and style of Sanjeevani Printers. Adjacent to his premise, one Rajnish Patwa is running business of selling certified seeds in the name and style of Patwa Agro Sales, Petlawad. On , a source information was received by RK Vishwakarma, Senior Agricultural Development Officer and Incharge Seed Inspector

2 that present applicant is storing seeds in large quantity in his business establishment without having valid licence for it. The premise was searched and large quantity of seeds was found stored in the premise of the present applicant. Present applicant submitted before the police that goods belong to his neighbour Rajnish Patwa, and merely because of convenience, kept it in rear portion of his shop. Said Rajnish Patwa admitted this fact and submitted that he had valid licence for storage and sale of certified seeds. Arguments heard, case diary perused. Learned counsel for the State opposes the bail application. Learned counsel for the applicant argues that the offence under section 3/7 of Essential Commodities Act is cognizable offence. This issue was considered by the Co-ordinate Bench of this Court in the case of Santosh Sahare Vs. State of MP in MCRC No.2914/2015 Bench at Gwalior. The Co-ordinate Bench of this Court observed in para 10 of the order that the offence is not non-bailable. Cognizance of

3 such an offence can be taken but in the absence of any other provision showing the offence to be non-bailable, the offence would continue to be bailable in view of the Schedule II of the Code of Criminal Procedure, However, Schedule II of Cr.P.C. relates to offence against other laws and in this Schedule, only those offence which are punishable for less than 3 years with fine, are bailable. In the present case, under section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, only those offence falling under section (7)(1)(a)(i) are punishable with one year and fine and so far as this Clause of section 7 is concerned, this relates to violation of the order made in reference to Clause was (h) or Clause (i) of Sub section 2 of section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act. These two Clauses pertain to collecting of any information or statistics with a view of regulating or prohibiting of the aforesaid matters and (i) pertains to production of the books, accounts and other records. However, this matter relates to licence and, therefore, in this case, punishment prescribed is 7 years and as such, under

4 Schedule 2 of Cr.P.C., this offence is not non-bailable. Reverting back to the merits of the present case, the neighbor of present applicant Rajnish Patwa admitted that the goods belong to him. Counsel for the applicant also filed photocopy of the licence issued in favour of Patwa Agro Sales, Petlawad, which is valid upto and taking all these factors into consideration, the only lapse on the part of the present applicant appears to be that he kept the goods belonging to a licence holder temporarily in his premises. There is no allegation of sales. In this view of the matter, in the considered opinion of this Court, I find that it is fit case where the benefit of provision under section 438 of Cr.P.C. may be extended to the present applicant. Accordingly, the application is allowed. It is directed that in the event of arrest, the applicant shall be released on anticipatory bail on his furnishing a personal bond of Rs.50,000/- (Rs. Fifty Thousand only) and a solvent surety of the like amount to the satisfaction of the

5 Certified copy as per rules. concerning Magistrate or Arresting Officer as the case may be, with the following conditions:- (i) that he shall make himself available for interrogation by a police officer as and when required. (ii) that he shall not, directly or indirectly, make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to the Court or to any police officer. (iii) that he would comply with the conditions enumerated under section 437(3) Cr.P.C. meticulously. Kratika/- (Alok Verma) Judge