Holding

The High Court's acquittal was erroneous; the respondents are convicted under s.16(1)(a)(i) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act.

Summary

The respondents were convicted under s.16(1)(a)(i) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act for selling confectionery drops containing cool‑tar dye. The Bombay High Court acquitted them on the ground that the sample sent to the public analyst was less than the 500 g minimum required by Rule 22, relying on the earlier Supreme Court decision in Rajlal Das Pamanani’s case. A larger Supreme Court bench later overruled that decision in State of Kerala v. Alassary Mohammed, holding that Rule 22 is merely directory and the public analyst decides sufficiency of the sample. The Supreme Court held that the High Court’s acquittal was therefore erroneous, set aside the order, convicted the respondents, imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 each and a default six‑month rigorous imprisonment, but declined to order actual imprisonment due to the lapse of time. The appeal was allowed.

Issues considered

The correctness of the High Court's acquittal based on the 500 g sample requirement in light of the later Supreme Court ruling that Rule 22 is directory.
The effect of a Supreme Court decision that has been overruled by a larger bench on subsequent cases.
Whether the Supreme Court should exercise its discretionary jurisdiction under Article 136 in this matter.
The appropriate sentence to impose given the delay between conviction and the present appeal.

Legislation cited

Prevention of Food Adulteration Acts. 16(1)(a)(i)

Subjects

Food adulterationRule 22Rule 22BDirectory rulePublic analystSupreme Court overrulingArticle 136ConvictionSentencing

Judgment

849

RAMDAS BHIKAJI CHAUDHARI
v.
SADA NANO & ORS.
October 3, 1979
[S. MURTAZA FAZAL ALI AND A. P. SEN, JJ.J
Prevention of Food Adulteration Act-S. 16(1) (a)(i)-High Court followed
an earlier decision of Supreme Court and acquitted the respondents-Earlier
decision over-ruled by Supreme Court-Effect of previous decision.
The respondents were convicted and sentenced on ·a charge of contravention
of s.16(1)(a)(i) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. Purporting to
foilow the decision of this Court in Rajlal Das Pamnani's case the: High Court
held that since the quantity of the sample sent to the Public Analyst was below
500 gms. the respondents were entitled to acquittal and allowed their revision
petitions. The appellant, the Food Inspector who prosecuted the respondents,
came in appeal to this Court under Art. 136 of the Constitution.
It was contended on behalf of the respondents that ( 1) this was not a ·fit
case for exercise of discretionary powers under Art. 136 and (2) since at the
relevent time the decision of this Court in Pamnani's case was the law declared
by this Court it was that decision which should. be applied to this· case.
Allowing the appeal
HELD : Acquittal of the resJ>(lDdenla by the High Cnurt was erroneous.
[853 DJ
1. In Alassary Mohammed the cases which this Court was considering were
really test cases which only invited a final decision of this Court on the interpre- B
tation of r. 22. Most of the counsel appearing for the prosecution did not
challenge the order of acquittal passed by the High Court. While laying down
the law on test cases this Court refused to set aside the order on the ground that
the acquittal was not ·challenged by the prosecution. [851 GJ
The present case is not a test case. Since Alassary Mohammed has decided
the point of law against the view of the High Court, the acquittal of the respon-
dents by the High Court was wrong on a point of law. TI!e question of exercis- P
ing discretion particularly against econon1ic offenders does not arise. [851 DJ
2. In Alassary Moha,nnied's cas~; this Court, overruling its earlier decision in
Raj/al Pamnani's case held that the amendment made to r. 22, by introducing
r. 22B, was not really an amendment in the strict sense of the term but merely
a clarification of what was intended by the original r. 22, that r. 22 was direc-
• tory and that it was for the Public Analyst to say whether the quantity of G·
sample sent to hi~ was sufficient or not for making necessary analysis. [850 EJ
State of Kera/a v. Alassary Mohammed, [1978J i SCR 820 explained.
3. Whenever a previous decision of this Court is overruled by a larger bench
the previous decision is completely wiped out ·and the court would have to
de_cide all sribsequent cases according to the law laid down by the later decision.
[853 CJ ff.
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Criminal Appeal No. 329 of
1979. .
8,50 SUPREME_COURT REPORTS [1980] 1 S.C.R.

[.A Appeal by Special Leave from the Judgment anJ Order dated
2-9-1976 of the Bombay High Court in Cr!. Rev. Appln. No. 310/75.
V. N. Ganp1de for the appellant.
N. N Keshwani and Ramesh N. Keshwam: for the Respondents 1-2.
M. C. Bhandare and M. N. Shroff for Respondent No. 3.
B The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
. FAZAL ALI, J.-This appeal.by special leave is directed against a
judgment of the Bombay High Court acquitting the respondents of the
charge under s. 16(1) (a) (i) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration
Act. The respondents were convicted under s. 16(1) (a) (i) of the
Prevention of FOod Adulteration Act and sentenced to 6 months' R.I.
c and ·fined Rs. 2,000/- as modified by the Sessions Judge in appeal.
The High Court accepted all the facts proved in thf'l case and found that
the confectionary drops sold by the accused to the Food Inspector by
way of sample contained cool tar dye. The High Court however, ac-
quitted the respondents only on the ground that under Rule 22 as it
D stood before the amendment required· that the minimum quantity of
500 gms. of the sample seized should be sent for ana.Jysis. This_ rule
was subsequently amended by Rule 22B. In fact as pointed by this
Court in the case of State of Kerala etc. etc. v. Alassary Mohammed
etc etc.(') the amendment by Rule 22B was not really an amend·
ment_ in the strict sense of the term bnt merely a clarification of what
E was really intended by the original Rule 22. The High Court how-
ever, on the basis of the decision of this Court in the case of Raja!
Das Guru Namal Pamanani v. State of Maharashtra(') held that as
the quantity of the sample sent to the Pnblic Analyst was below
500 gms., therefore, the respondents were entitled to an acquittal on
this ground alone. The High ·Court accordingly allowed the revision
F and acquitted the respondents. Thereafter the appellant obt>ained
special leave of this Court and hence this appeal.
A few admitted facts may be mentioned here. In the first place )
the decision of this Court in Raja! Das Guru Namal Pamanani v.
State of Malwrasht~a, (supra) was reconsidered by a larger bench of
5 Judges who over-ruled the aforesaid decision in the case of State of
G
Kerala etc. etc. v. Allassary Mohammed etc. etc. (supra) and held
that Rule 22 was purely directory and must always be
construed to have been so. It was further held that it was
for the Public Analyst to say whether the quantity of the sample J
sent to him was sufficient or not for making necessary analysis. In
H view of the law 'laid down by the latest decision of this Court referred
(1) [1978] 2 S. C. R. 820.
(2) (1975] 2 s. c. R. 886.
R. B. CHAUDHARI v. SADA NAND (Fazal Ali, J.) 851

1o above, it is obvious that the . acquittal by the High Court was A
'- legally erroneous.
Learned counsel appearing for the respondents raised three points
before us. In the first place he submitted that as at the time when
the respondents were acquitted the previous decision of the Court in
Rajiil Das Guru Namal Pamanani's case held the field, it is not a fit case
where we should exercise our discretionary power under Art. 136 to set B
aside the order of acquittal particularly when the case was launched
against the respondents as far back a.s 1971. · Secondly it was con-
1ended that even though . the previous decision of this Court was
.over-ruled by this Court in the case of State of Kera/a v. Alassary
Mohammed (supra), yet the previous decision was the law laid
. down by this Court under Art. 141 of the Constitution and, c
therefore, the judgment · of the High Court was correct. As
regards the first point we think that there is absolutely
no substance in it: The later decision of this Court inl
.State of Kerpla v. Alassary Mohammed (supra) bas clearly decided
the point o! law against the view taken by the High Court and D
as 'a logical consequence thereof the acquittal of the respondents was
wrong on a; point of law. This appeal therefore is clearly concluded
i by the aforesaid decision and the question of our exercising discretion
particularly in cases of economic offenders does not arise. This first
. argument is, therefore, over-ruled.
Secondly it was argued that even if the decision in Alassary E
Mohammed's case (supra) holding that Rule 22 was directory and the
··mere fact that the quantity of sample fell below the quantity required
by the _Rules did not vitiate the conviction yet this Court refused to
:interfere in that ·case and on a parity of the reasons given
in that · case we should also not interfere. Reading the deci-
sion as a whole we find that while declaring the law this F
· Court refused to interfere on special ground peculiar to the
cases before them. In the first place the case before them was
really a test case and the majority of the counsel appearing for the
State clearly conceded that they were not at 'al.I serious in challenging
·the acquittal of the respondents but were more concerned with the
G
interpretatioa to be given to Rule 22. It is true that in some of the
cases from Bombay the counsel showed some anxiety for obtaining
conviction bnt having regard to the peculiar facts of that case this
Court considered that it was not necessary to interfere. This will
·be clear from the observations made by this Court which may be
extracted thns : H
"In three Kerala cases Mr. S. V. Gupte appeari.Bg with
Mr. K. R. Nambiar and Mr. Sudhakran stated before us
852 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1980] 1 S.C.li•.

A that the State was interested more in the correcf enuncia-
tion of the law than in seeing that the respondents in these
appeals are convicted. They were not anxious to prose-
cute these matters to obtain ultimate conviction of the res-
pondents. A large number of the other appeals are by the ,
Municipal Corporation of Delhi for whom the Attorney
B General appeared assisted by Mr. B. P. Maheshwari. Al-
though a categorical stand was not taken on behalf of the
appellants in these appeals as the one taken in the Kerala
cases, eventually, the learned Attorney General did not
seriously object to the course indicated by us. In the few
Bombay appeal& M/s. V. S. Desai and M. N. Shroff showed
c their anxiety for obtaining ultimate convictions of the
offenders, but we do not find sufficient reason for passing
a different kind of order in _ the Bombay appeals. In
similar situations in the case of the State of Bihar v. Hiralal
Kejriwal and Anr.(') this Court refused to exercise its
D discretionary jurisdiction under Art. 136 of the Constitu-
tion and did not order the continuance of the crimina.1 pro-
ceeding any further. In Food Inspector, Calicut Corp. v..
Cherukattil Gopalan & Anr.('), this Court said at page
730:-
"But in view of the fact that the appellant has argued
E
the appeal only as a test case and does not challenge the
acquittal of the respondents, we merely set aside the order
and judgment of the High Court. But we may make it
...
clear that apart from holding the respondents ' technically
guilty, we are not setting aside the order of acquittal
F passed in their favour."
Thus the above observations clearly show that this Court was not
interfering in those cases mainly on two grounds : Firstly, that the
cases were really test coases which only invited a final decision of this
Court on the_ interpretation of kule 22. Secondly, that most of the
G counsel appearing for the prosecution did not challenge the order or
acquitta.1 passed by the High Court. That is why this Court took
•.
care to rely on an earlier decision of this Court reported in Cheru-
kattil Gopalan's case (supra) where this Court while laying down the:
law on test cases refused to set aside the order on the ground that
the acquittal was not challenged by the prosecution. Neither of the 1
H two grounds are applicable to ·the present case. It is not a test case·
(1) [1960) 1 S.C.R. 726.
(2) [1971] Suppl. S.C.R. 721.

•
R. n. CHAUDHARI v. SADA NAND (Fazal Ali, 1.). 853

'a.l all. A large number of cases had already been decided in accord- .A.
..nce with the decision given by this Court in Alassary Moham-
med's case (supra). Secondly the appellant has vehemently chalt-
lenged the acquittal of· the respondents and urged before us that the
acquittal of the respondents should be set aside and the respondents
should ·be convicted. Thus the second point raised by counsel for
.... lbe appellant also does not appear to be tenable. Lastly it was ·B
_). :argued that under Art. 141 since the earlier case decided by this
Court in Pqmanani's case (supra) held the field, it must be held
lbat it was the law laid down by this Court under Art. 141 of the·
J
.• Comtitution. It is well settled that whenever a previous decision is
•• ever-ruled by. a larger bench the previous deci!lon is completely
wiped out and Art 141 will have no application to the decision c
• which has already been over-ruled, and the court would have to
clecide the case according to law laid down by the latest decision of
,,.. ~ Court and not by the decision which has been expressly over-
:ruled. 'Ibis contention also therefore, must fail. Thus for the rea~
sons given above we hold that the judgment of the High Court iS
vitiated by clear error of law and cannot be sustained. D

The next question that remains for determination is as to what
;.. the sentence which would be imposed on the respondents if their
acquittal is reversed. In the instant case we find that the respon-
dents were prosecuted in the year 1971 and ultimately acquitted by
lhe High Court in 1976. After the acquittal remained in force for E
three years the matter has come up before u•. ·In these circum-
stances, therefore, the ends of justice do not require that the respon-
dents should be sent back to jail. Mr. Ganpule pointed out that so
far as respondent No. 1 Sada Nand was concerned he had a previous
conviction to his credit and so he deserves a jail sentence. As the
previous conviction was 7 years old and today it will be about 15 F
years old, 'vc Go not think that vve should take these facts into consi...

"'__.. __
deration while imposing the sentence on the respondent. For the
reasons; therefore, we would allow this apperu and set aside the order
ef · the High Court "and convict the respondents under sec.
16(1) (a) (i) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act and sen-
G
tence the respondents to fine of Rs. 2,000/- each, in default 6 months'
R.I.
In view of the undertaking given by the counsel for the respon-
tients that they will be careful in future we do not choos~ to pass· tho H
i
.' . ..... ecn•equential order under Sec. 16(1)(d) •

1'.B.lt. ·. .Appeal allowed.

• U-625 SCI/79

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