( 1 ) THESE two revisional applications have been heard together since one of the points involved in common to both of them. The point so involved is as to whether an offence under Section 16 (1) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 (hereinafter referred to as the Principal Act), if committed prior to the Prevention of Food Adulteration (Amendment) Act (No. 34 of 1976) (hereinafter referred to as the Central Amendment of 1976) would be punishable and triable in the manner prescribed by the Central Amendment of 1976 as aforesaid, or in accordance with the provisions of the Principal Act as they stood applicable to West Bengal prior to such amendment. It would be necessary to refer to the facts of the two cases to appreciate how the point arises and they are shortly set out as hereunder.

( 2 ) IN the case of Banshidhari Manna, the said petitioner had a grocery shop at Village Bahadurpur, Poice Station Garbeta, District Midnapore. On November 22, 1974, a food-inspector visited his grocery shop and purchased a quantity of mustard oil and sent the same to a public analyst for analysis. On such analysis the mustard oil was found to be adulterated. On September