Guilty knowledge is not necessary for the commission of the offence under special emergency legislation such as r. 47 of the Defence of India Rules.

JUDGMENT

Derbyshire, C.J. - The Appellants are Monotosh Kumar Mitra and Naresh Chandra Guha. Their appeals are against convictions recorded against them by the Chief Presidency Magistrate of Calcutta under r. 47 of the Defence of India Rules, the sentence in each case being nine months' rigorous imprisonment. Rule 47 (2) (b) provides:

No person shall use or have in his possession any forged or altered official document, or any document, so nearly resembling an official document as to be calculated to deceive.

In sub-r. (1) "official document" includes any passport, pass, permit, certificate, licence, notice or other documents issued by or under the authority of any Government or any officer of His Majesty's forces or any police officer.

2. The circumstances are these. In the year 1943, petrol was rationed in Calcutta. The owners of motor cars were allotted a certain ration and given permission to buy that ration through coupons issued by the Area Rationing Authority. The system under which this was done was that the owner of the motor car applied to the Area Rationing Authority for an allowance of petrol for his car for the month. That application was considered by the rationing authority and, if granted, a number of coupons were issued to the applicant, to permit the applicant to draw his ration. The number of coupons allowed was entered in the registration book of the motor car for which the allowance was given. At the same time a permit book was given to the owner of the car and when he desired to draw any part of his petrol allowance the car had to be taken to the petrol supply depot, the price and the number of coupons for the amount desired handed over, the petrol put into the tank of the car; the supplier of the petrol was under an obligation to enter up in the permit book which the owner or driver took to the supply depot, the number of gallons supplied and the serial letters and numbers of the coupons which had been surrendered by the owner, when he received the petrol. The coupons were printed on a specially prepared and marked Government paper and marked with a letter and also a serial number. There was also impressed on such coupon a rubber stamp mark to show that it had been issued by the Area Rationing Authority. Another stamp mark was made on each coupon to indicate the months for which it was available.

3. Early in the year 1943, a stock of these petrol coupons was in store in the Secretariat, and some of them wore stolen. The theft itself was not discovered until July, 1943, and then a count was made to find out which coupons had been stolen. That count took a considerable time, and a final ascertainment of the quantity of, and the serial letters and numbers of the stolen coupons was not made up until November. In November, lists of the stolen coupons were circulated to the wholesale petrol suppliers in Calcutta. The wholesale petrol suppliers supplied petrol to various petrol depots according to demand, and the owner of the petrol depot was required to hand over to the wholesale suppliers a number of used coupons equivalent to the quantity of petrol supplied. In this particular instance, the Standard Vacuum Oil Co. of Calcutta were the wholesale suppliers, and on searching amongst the coupons they had received from the depots they supplied they found that for the months of May and June, 1943, nineteen stolen coupons had been sent in by the Central Calcutta Motor Stores, Wellesley Street, Calcutta. This petrol pump station is owned by the Appellant, Monotosh Kumar Mitra. Monotosh spends some of his time at the station, but employs assistants, one of whom is Naresh Chandra Guha.

4. An examination of the nineteen coupons received from the Appellant's pump station was made and certain facts emerged. We are only concerned with two particular coupons. One is Coupon No. D/3, 682259 for four units. The other is Coupon No. D/3, 682262 for four units. Both of them are ordinary coupons, that is to say, they were issued in r

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