Judgment

THAKKAR, J.:- Right, or wrong, guilty or not guilty, is not the question. Whether the learned single Judge had the right to hear and decide the appeal and hold that the appellants were guilty whilst setting aside their acquittal by the judgment under appeal*1 is the question which has surfaced in the context of a judgment rendered by a learned single Judge which according to the relevant rules of the High Court was required to be heard and decided by a Division Bench.

*1. Criminal Appeal No. 90 of 1983 decided by the High Court of Bombay (Aurangabad Bench) on June 13, 1986 resulting in the present appeal by special leave.

2. The State of Maharashtra (respondent herein) preferred an appeal to the High Court of Bombay in order to challenge the order of acquittal rendered by the lower Court in favour of the present appellants. The acquittal was in respect of an offence under Section 7(1) read with Sections 16 and 17 of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act 1954. The offence was punishable with a sentence of imprisonment exceeding two years.*2 The appeal was, therefore, required to be heard by a Division Bench of the High Court and not by a learned single Judge.

*2. Sec. 16 of