JUDGMENT

NATARAJAN, J. :— In both the appeals by special leave, a common question of law is involved and hence they were heard together and are being disposed of by a common judgment. In Crl. Appeal No. 49/78, a lorry driver and two cleaners and in Crl. Appeal No. 24/78 a lorry driver and a coolie were prosecuted for exporting fertilisers without a permit therefor from Madhya Pradesh to Maharashtra in contravention of the Fertilisers (Movement Control) Order, 1973 (for short the F.M.C. Order) read with Ss. 3 and 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, (for short the E. C. Act). In both the cases, the Trial Magistrate held that the prosecution had failed to prove that the accused were attempting to export the fertilisers and he therefore acquitted them. On the State preferring appeals against acquittal under S. 378(3) Criminal Procedure Code, the High Court declined to grant leave. Hence the State has preferred these appeals by special leave.

2. The facts in the two cases are identical. In Crl. Appeal No. 49/78, a truck bearing registration No. M.P. 3668 carrying 200 bags of fertilisers and proceeding from Indore to Maharashtra was intercepted on 12-2-74 at Sendhwa Sales Tax Barrie