Judgment

KRISHNA IYER, J. :- This criminal appeal, by special leave, raises a few questions of law under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 (Act XXXVII of 1954) (for short, the Act), ingeniously urged by the appellants, a firm and its two partners, although the plea of guilty entered by the appellants before the trial Court - possibly as part of a plea bargaining which misfired at the appellate level - makes short shrift of the exculpatory and extenuatory arguments urged by his counsel before us. At the end of the weary forensic exercise we gathered what should have been told us first viz., that when the three accused were examined and charges read out they pleaded guilty, which would have abbreviated the hearing here had we known it earlier. We proceed on the footing that the facts set out in the charges are true, that being the net price of a plea of guilt.

2. At this stage, the particulars and the setting of the prosecution facts need to be narrated. On October 2, 1973 the Food Inspector of Nasik visited the small restaurant of the first accused firm at about 8.30 a.m., found a few litres of milk kept for sale and enquired about the quality of the milk. He was told by a