1. This prosecution has been started on the basis of a report to the Officer-in-charge, Malsalami P. S. by Shri M. P. Singh D. S. P. (Food) dated 2-4-1974 in which it is stated that in January, 1974, it was found that 17511 big tins of Vanaspati were lying at the station undelivered for days and the consignees of those tins had left them at the station because the Government had taken over distribution of Vanaspati and that the takeover would have affected the irregular manner of sale made by the consignees. Investigation was taken up and in that process sale and stock registers of several wholesale dealers in Vanaspati were taken charge of and investigated. One of such, dealers was M/s. Krishna Trading Company of Maroofganj, P. S. Malsalami. After a thorough check it was found that this firm had shown various sales of Vanaspati to various dealers at various places. All such sales, which were it transpired, fictitious were as follows:-

(i) 50 big tins of vanaspati were sold to Sajjan Stores of Madhepura on 18-12-1973, which sale was denied by the proprietor of Sajjan Stores and was not found entered in his stock register. A written statement of the proprietor of Sajjan Stores was obtained in support of the above fact.

(ii) Sale of 6 tins of vanaspati was shown to Khublal Kesari of Jehanabad holding licence. No. 11/67 on 3-12-1973 which sale was denied by the said dealer and his stock register did not show any entry to that effect. A statement of Khublal under S. 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was also taken, in view of the denial of Khublal.

(iii) 5 tins of vanaspati were shown to have been sold to one Ram Prasad Shah of Dinapore on 1-12-1973 and 15 tins, on 15-12-1973, who held licence No. 1/67. Sales of 7 tins, 10 tins, 10 tins, 10 tins and 10 tins were shown to have been made to one Sheo Dutta of Dinapore on 6-12-1973, 6-12-1973, 4-12-1973, 18-12-1873 and 28-12-1973, respectively. He was holding licence No. 23/67. 5 tins of vanaspati was shown to have been sold on 6-12-1973 to one Jamuna Prasad holding licence No. 6/70. Another 10 tins of vanaspati were shown to have been sold on 15-12-1973 to one Mahabir Sah of Dinapore holding licence No. 5/67. All the above sales were denied by the purchaser who made statement u/s 164 Cr. P. C. 2 sales of 5 tins each were shown to have been made on 18-12-73 to Chand Mull and Sheo Prasad holding licence Nos. 9/67 and 90/67 respectively. On verification it was found that Sheo Prasad was The servant of Chand Mull but he did not hold any licence. Chand Mull accepted to have lifted only 5 tins on that date. Sale of 10 tins of Vanaspati was show to have been made to one Mukteshwar Nath of Dinapore on 18-12-73 holding licence No. 68/69. It was found that no person of the name of Rajkumar could be traced in Dinapore town and the licence No. 68/69 could not be located.

Statements of all the aforesaid persons were recorded under S. 164 of the Cr. P.C. in support of denials of sales made to them by the petitioner firm.

2 On the basis of the aforesaid report a case was instituted under S. 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 , (hereinafter to be referred to as the Act), under Ss. 465/467/471/420 of the I.P.C. and R. 114 of the Defence of Indian Rules. During the pendency of this application charge sheet was submitted on 30-9-74 against petitioners 2 and 3. It was stated in the charge-sheet as follows :-

"In short the history of the case is that the accused persons sold Vanaspati tins to fictitious persons and thereby earned profit in blackmarket."

3 In the present application the pertitioners seek the quashing of the F.I.R. contained in Annexure 1. Subsequently by a supplementary affidavit it has been further prayed that the entire prosecution based on the charge-sheet dated 30-9-1974 be also quashed.

4. It is well settled that the charge sheet is the report of a public servant within the meaning of S. 11 of the Essential Commodities Act and, therefore it its essential that the fa