JUDGMENT :

K.C. Jagadeb Roy, J. - The present Petitioner who was accused in a case numbered as (sic) Case No. 306 of 1983 in the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Cuttack was tried for committing an offence u/s 16(1)(a)(ii) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. The accused himself was the Manager of the depot and in charge of M/s. prag Oil Mills, a sale depot situated at Malgodown, Cuttack. On the complaint of Sri. P.C. Misra, the Food Inspector, Cuttack Municipality, the said case was initiated for alleged violation of Role 50 of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules, 1955 as well as Section 7 of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. Rule 50 of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules, 1955 reads as follows:

Rule 50(1) No person shall manufacture, sell, stock, distribute or exhibit for sale any article of food, including prepared food or ready to serve food, except under a licence.

x x x x

There is no dispute that edible vegetable oils are articles of food. The depot distributes edible vegetable oils and is required to obtain licence within the meaning of Rule 50 of the Food Adulteration Rules referred to earlier. Rule 5 of the Orissa Food Adulteration Rules,