The four appellants are partners in a business in Madras, three of them being absentee partners living in Coimbatore and the fourth being in actual charge of the business. They have been convicted of four offences punishable under section 6(1) read with section 13(1) of the Hoarding and Profiteering Prevention Ordinance in respect of sales of soda ash at prices which showed a profit of between 210 per cent. and 216 per cent. instead of the statutory 20 per cent. above the landed cost. The absentee partners have been sentenced to pay fines totalling Rs. 300 each and the managing partner at Madras has been sentenced to pay fines of Rs. 2,000 on each of the four counts. The fines have all been paid.

On the facts Mr. K.S. Jayarama Aiyar raises no contest and he confines himself to two arguments; the first is that the definition of a dealer or producer contained in the Ordinance does not include the absentee partners at Coimbatore, and the second is that the fines are in any event excessive.

According to section 2(b) of the Ordinance a dealer is defined to be

“a person carrying on the business of selling any article, whether wholesale or retail.”

and Mr. Jayarama Aiyar’s contention