9911796707
TMI Blog1979 (1) TMI 234X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sentence was awarded under these counts. The trial court had, in fact, imposed a sentence of imprisonment only till the rising of the Court but the High Court in its revisional jurisdiction enhanced the sentence to one year's rigourus imprisonment, and hence this appeal by special leave. According to the prosecution, on 5.5.1970 at about 11.30 a.m. the complainant Drugs Inspector, Jalagaon received a telephonic message from the Senior Railway Sub-Inspector Bhusawal to the effect that the appellant had been caught at the Bhusawal railway station with 17 plastic containers containing 17,000 white coloured tablets. On receiving this message the complainant went to Bhusawal railway station on the next day and after taking permission from th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the prosecution to convict him on his plea of guilty. Section 18 (c) runs thus : "manufacture for sale, or sell, or stock or exhibit for sale, or distribute any drug or cosmetic, except under, and in accordance with the conditions of, a licence issued for such purpose under this Chapter." Section 27 is the penal section under which the offence is punishable and this section runs thus: "Whoever himself or by any other person on his behalf manufactures for sale, sells, stocks or exhibits for sale or distributes-(a) any drug- (i) deemed to be misbranded under clause (a), clause (b), clause (e), clause (d), clause (f) or clause (g) of section 17 or adulterated under section 17B; or (ii) without a valid licence as required ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... one indivisible whole and it contemplates not merely stocking the drugs but stocking the drugs for the purpose of sale and unless all the ingredients of this category are satisfied, section 27 of the Act would not be attracted. In the present case there is no evidence to show that the appellant had either got these tablets for sale or was selling them or had stocked them for sale. Mr. Khanna appearing for the State, however, contended that the word "stock" used in section is wide enough to include the possession of a person with the tablets and where such a person is in the possession of tablets of a very huge quantity, a presumption should be drawn that they were meant for sale or for distribution. In our opinion, the contention ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... challengeable evidence of the complainant that after recovering tablets from the possession of the appellant, he had served a registered notice to him to disclose the source from which he had acquired the tablets and despite this notice the appellant refused to disclose the source. Thus the act of the appellant clearly falls within the ambit of section 28 of the Act. The trial court further did not impose any separate sentence under this section. But that will not be a bar to imposing a proper sentence by this Court provided the sentence does not exceed the sentence already imposed under section 27 (a) (i). When the High Court was moved for enhancing the sentence, it was moved only under section 27 (a) (ii) of the Act because under that se ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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