Mens rea is an essential ingredient of an offence under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, and a person commits an offence under Section 7 only if he intentionally contravenes any order made under Section 3 of the Act.

JUDGMENT :

S. Acharya, J. - This is an appeal u/s 417(1), Code of Criminal Procedure against the order dated 9-2-1970 of the Sub-divisional Magistrate, Puri, in 3(c) C.C. No. 73 of 1967 acquitting the accused (Respondent herein) of the charges under Sections 7(ii) and 9(i) of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955,(hereinafter referred to as the 'Act').

2. The accused was prosecuted on the, allegations that on 20-5-1967 the Inspector of Supplies (p.w. 1) found on inspection and physical verification that there were shortages of Q1. 90 Kgs. of, sugar, 88 kgs. of suji, 18 kgs. of wheat and excess of 5 kgs. of Maida and 4 kgs. of Atta in the shop of the accused 'when compared with the' book balance kept in that shop. The accused was a licensed dealer in essential, commodities having his shop and godown at Laxmi Bazar in the Puri town. On 19-5-1967 at about 7 p.m., p.w. 5, who was the local M.L.A. and the Deputy Speaker of the Orissa Legislative Assembly at that time, received a phone message from somebody to the effect that the accused was selling sugar in the 'black' market and so there was a 'Golmal' between the accused and some customers near his shop. P.w. 5 proceeded to the spot and on hearing some complaints against the accused, p.w. 5 wanted to inspect the relevant registers and the stock position of the controlled commodities in the shop of the accused. The accused voluntarily showed the account books to p.w. 51 who thereafter made a physical verification of the stock of such commodities in that shop and found that the stock in hand of the essential commodities therein did, not tally with the book balance maintained in that shop. So p.w. 5 informed the matter on phone to the Civil Supplies Officer, the Superintendent of Police, the District Magistrate and to the Officer then in the local police station. When p.w. 5 was inspecting and verifying the registers and the actual stock position in the shop, he found that a few bags of Suji, wheat, and other things were brought by the N.C.C. people to that shop, and the persons in that truck wanted to deliver those articles to the accused. P.w. 5, however, did not allow delivery of those articles to the accused and directed those persons to take those articles to the police station. As the concerned authorities did not come to the spot at night, p.w. 5 offered Satyagraha and slept in the varandah of that shop throughout the night. The Civil Supplies Officer, the Inspector of Supplies and the Officer-in-charge of the local police station arrived at the shop on 20-5-1967 and verified the stock position of the, essential commodities in that shop. P.w. 1, the Inspector of Supplies weighed the essential commodities in that shop, but could not ascertain the shortage or excess of those articles in the relevant registers had by then been seized by the police. The relevant registers were made available to p.w. 1 on 21-5-1967 on which date he,verified the stock with reference to the registers and found that there was shortage of Q1.90 kgs. of sugar, 18 kgs. of wheat and 88 kgs. of Suji. He further found that there was excess of 51 kgs. of Maida and 4 kgs. of Atta in the shop. He submitted his written report (Ext. 7) to the Civil Supplies Officer to the above effect requesting therein for the cancellation of the licence issued to the accused. Later, on 23-5-1967 p.w. 1 submitted the prosecution report (Ext. 3) against the accused, on which he was prosecuted.

3. The defence put up by the accused is that the shortage of sugar and Suji found by p.w. 1 was due to the fact that the local Civil Supplies Officer had asked the accused on phone to supply the said quantities of the aforesaid commodities to the N.C.C. Administrative Officer (d.w. 1). as he wanted the same in connection with the Zonal N.C.C. camp held at Puri in May, 1967. The Civil Supplies Officer had informed the, accused that the N.C.C. Administrative Officer had applied for the supply of the aforesaid commodities to the Civil Supplies Of