Judgment

MEHR CHAND MAHAJAN, C.J.I.

This is an appeal under Article 134 (1) (c) of the constitution of India from the judgment of the High Court at Calcutta dated the 21st of March 1952 whereby the High Court upheld the conviction of the appellant under Section 467 of the Indian Penal Code but reduced the sentence passed upon him by the Additional Sessions Judge of Burdwan.

2. The appeal concerns one of a series of cases known generally as "The Burdwan Test Relief Fraud cases" which had their origin in the test relief operations held in the District of Burdwan in 1943 during the Bengal famine of that year. The acute scarcity and the prevailing distress of the famine - stricken people in the district called for immediate relief and test relief operations were undertaken by the District Magistrate. The Government of Bengal sanctioned four lakhs of rupees as advance to the District Board for such test relief operations. The District Board, however, instead of conducting the relief work directly, appointed several agents on commission basis through whom the test relief operations were carried out.

This was in clear violation of the Bengal Famine Code and the Famine Manual, 1941, and as exc