Transportation of wheat from an internal border area to a place outside the state without a permit, in violation of the Rajasthan Food-Grains (Restrictions on Border Movement) Order, 1959, is an offence punishable under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.

1. - This is an appeal by the State against the judgment of the learned Sessions Judge, Partabgarh, dated the 20th February, 1961, acquitting all the four accused, namely, Shobhalal, Kishanlal, Bhura and Gokal of the offence under section 7 read with section 8 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.

2. The prosecution story in this case was that on the 12th July, 1959, the three accused namely, Kishanlal, Bhura and Gokal were seen taking 6 bags of wheat on three camels at village Jar, which was within the territory of Madhya Pradesh. P. W. Sachidanand, head constable, interrogated them as to what was contained in the bags. Thereupon, they said that the bags contained wheat. On further interrogation, they stated that they were bringing the bags from village Dorai and were taking them to the house of Moolchand Mahajan at village Jat. Since the wheat was transported from the territory of Rajasthan and its movement outside the territory was prohibited, a case under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, was registered. It was found that the said wheat was moved by accused Shobhalal and the other three accused, who were employed by him, were only its carriers. After investigation, all the four accused were prosecuted in the court of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Begun.

3. The accused admitted that the wheat was brought from village Dorai and that the bags were seized at village Jar. They, however, pleaded that the wheat was being taken to Nimbahera which was within the territory of Rajasthan itself. The trial court came to the conclusion that accused Kishanlal, Bhura and Gokal had committed an offence under section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, which will hereinafter be referred as the Act, and therefore they were convicted and sentenced to one year's R. I. and a fine of Rs. 1000/- each. Accused Shobhalal was convicted under section 8 of the Act and sentenced to one year's R. I. and a fine of Rs. 1000/-. In default of the payment of fine, all the four accused were ordered to undergo 6 months' further R. I. All the six bags of the wheat were also ordered to be confiscated.

4. Aggrieved by the said judgment dated 19th December, 1960, all the four accused preferred appeals before the learned Sessions Judge, Partabgarh. The learned judge observed that the prosecution was unable to refer to him any order passed by the State of Rajasthan prohibiting the movement of wheat, nor was it able to refer to any order of the Collector, Chittorgarh, and therefore it could not be said if the accused had committed any offence. It was also observed that the Magistrate could take cognizance of the offence only on a report in writing by a public servant and as no such report was made, the cognizance taken by the Magistrate was not legal. It was only on these two grounds that the appeals were allowed and the conviction and sentences of the accused were set aside. The learned judge did not care to go into the merits of the case.

5. It is contendedly learned Assistant Government Advocate that both the reasons given by the learned Sessions judge are wrong. It is pointed out by him that the Central Government had passed an Order called the Rajasthan Food-grains (Restrictions on Border Movement) Order, 1959, and that all the four accused had contravened Clause 4 thereof.

6. We find that the said Order was made by the Central Government in exercise of the powers conferred by section 3 of the Act and that Order was published in the Rajasthan Gazette dated 1st September, 1960, under Notification No. G. S. R. 432 ( No. 204 (Raj.) 1/287/59-PY-11 ).

7. Clause 2 of the said Order defined "internal border area" as meaning the area within five miles belt all a long the Border of the State of Rajasthan adjoining the States of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bombay. Clause 3 of the said Order further provided that no person shall transport, attempt to transport or abet the transport of wheat (a) to any place in the internal border area from any