1963 (4) TMI 1

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..... nt more in default). Mauji Lal Sharma (Respondent No. 2) was convicted under section 353, Indian Penal Code and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two months and to pay a fine of Rs. 200/- (or to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two months more, in default). Both the respondents were further convicted under section 342 of the Code but no separate punishment was imposed upon them thereunder. 2.The prosecution case, which was accepted by the learned trying Magistrate and which has not been doubted or disbelieved by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, was that on receipt of certain secret information that some illegal transactions in tobacco were to take place in the godown of respondent Mauji Lal in village Suratpur, Inspect .....

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..... pported in Court by the Inspector (P.W. 1) and his two sepoys (P.Ws. 3 and 4), besides a villager (P.W. 2) and a Chaukidar (P.W. 5). 5.The defence taken was that there was no occurrence at all and the respondents had been falsely implicated on account of bitter feelings between them and the Deputy Superintendent and the Inspector of Cential Excise. The defence, however, was not substantiated, except that it was shown that the respondents did not have good feelings against the Central Excise authorities. 6.The ground upon which the learned Additional Sessions Judge has recorded the acquittal of the respondents is mainly that the rules relating to search contained in the Central Excise and Salt Act, 1944, and the rules made thereunder wer .....

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..... associated with the commission of an offence. Inspection of a godown is not a search by itself, and inspection by a Central Excise Inspector is persmissible even if no offence has been committed, and such inspection of a godown is the ordinary part of the duties of an Inspector like P.W. 1. To inspection of this nature, there can be no question of following the provisions contained in Section 165 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Therefore, the learned Judge was quite wrong in rejecting the entire prosecution case on the footing that the alleged search was illegal. 7.One of the convictions was for theft of a Parker fountain-pen under Section 379, Indian Penal Code. This conviction could not possibly have been upset even upon the view ta .....

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