A court has territorial jurisdiction to try an offence only if it was committed within the limits of its local jurisdiction.

1. - By this petition, Under Section 482 of the Cr. PC, the accused petitioners have challenged the order of the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bikaner dated May 18, 1980 by which cognizance against them & some other persons was taken for offences punishable Under Section 18/32 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') and the Rules made thereunder, It was prayed that as the cognizance was wrongly taken, the aforesaid order be set aside and the proceedings taken there-under be quashed.

2. The Drugs Inspector, Bikaner submitted a complaint against the eight accused-petitioners and six others in the court below on May 18, 1982. It was alleged therein that the Inspector visited one shop of M/s Bordia Medical Stores, Nokha on August 21, 1931. There he found Analgin-500 IP tablet prepared under label of Batch No. 118 with the manufacturing date of September, 1979. He suspected the aforesaid medicine to be of substandard quality. He purchased the tablets for examination purpose from accused Kanhaiya Lal, Proprietor of M/s Bordia Medical Stores by making a payment of Rs. 54/- in cash to him. The sample of the medicine was sent for examination to the Public Analyst, Rajasthan Jaipur. On test, the sample did not give positive identification for Analgin. It was alleged that the medicine was manufactured by accused M/s Fine Pharmaceutical Industries, Indore The accused-petitioners are partners in the said manufacturing industries. It was further alleged that M/s Bordia Medical Stores had purchased the aforesaid Analgin from M/s Rajesh Medical Agencies, Jodhpur of which accused Omprakash, Ummaidraj and Laxmandas were the partners. It was also alleged that M/s Rajesh Medical Agencies had purchased the Analgin from M/s Fine Pharmaceutical Industries, Indore. Since the Analgin was found of substandard quality, all the accused-petitioners had committed the offence the offence punishable Under Section 32 read with Section 18 of the Act. The learned Magistrate took cognizance and issued warrants with bail provision against the 14 accused-persons named in the complaint. Aggrieved against the said order, some of the accused-persons who own and hold partnership in M/s Fine Pharmaceutical Industries have come up in revision to this Court. I have heard the learned counsel for the accused petitioners and the learned Public Prosecutor.

3. It was vehemently contended by Mr. M.D. Purohit, learned Counsel for the petitioners, that the court below bad no territorial jurisdiction to take cognizance of the offence against the accused-petitioners. The Analgin was manufactured at Indore. The sample was not purchased at Indore. The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bikaner, there, could not take cognizance against them as the offence was not committed within local limits of his jurisdiction. Reliance was placed on Section 177 of the Cr. PC. A photostat copy the judgment of the Madhya Pradesh High Court passed in M/s Bhasin Drugs Pharmaceutical Industries Pvt. Ltd, Bombay v. State of Madhya Pradesh in Criminal Revision No. 207/77, decided on August 7, 1978 , was admitted before me. In reply, the learned Public Prosecutor submitted that the offence is a continuing one and was committed in more local areas than one. It was also argued that though the medicine was manufactured at Indore, the consequence had resulted at Nokha. as much the offences could be enquired and tried by the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bikaner. The learned Public Prosecutor relied upon Sections 178 & 179, Cr. PC in support of his contention. I have taken the respective contentions into consideration. It may be stated that the view taken by the Madhya Pradesh High Court in the case referred to above has been accepted by their Lordships of the Supreme Court when the State of Madhya Pradesh went in revision against that order. Their Lordships of the Supreme Court, after hearing the counsel, dismissed the special leave petition. As such, the decisio