The court held that the language of Order 21.5 of the Punjab Opium Orders, 1957, was ambiguous and capable of two constructions. The court construed the order in favor of the accused, holding that possession of opium extracted poppy-heads in any quantity was not prohibited.

I.D.Dua, J.

1. This is an appeal filed by the State against the judgment of a learned Magistrate, 1st Class, Dhuri, acquitting Sat Ram Dass under Section 9 of the Opium Act.

2. The story of the prosecution is that on 17-4-1957 at about 6.10 . m. the accused respondent was found in possession of 20 seers of poppy-heads near the way leading to village Kakarwal from railway line Dhuri. He was caught by the investigating officer and two witnesses Jagar Singh and Niranjan Singh, when the poppy-heads were said to have been tied in a cloth which was being carried by the accused in the form of a bundle placed on his head. A constable was sent to Dhuri town to fetch someone who could weigh the substance recovered Bhagat Ram P. W. 2 came and found the weight of the commodity recovered to be 20 seers; it included both broken and unbroken poppy-heads.

It is then alleged that about three months later this very bundle which had been sealed at the time of recovery was again opened and poppy husk and poppy-heads found in it, were separately weighed. The learned Magistrate after going through the entire evidence felt that the prosecution case was doubtful and had not been proved against the accused. The substance recovered consisted of bhukki or poppy husk and poppy heads. The learned Magistrate found that possession of poppy husk was not an offence under the law as possession of poppy capsules alone falls within the definition of opium which is punishable under the Opium Act, and that also only if it exceeds in quantity the limit prescribed by law.

The learned Magistrate also disagreed with the contention of the prosecution that dodas were the same thing as poppy capsules, but assuming that dodas were the same thing as poppy capsules, he was of the view that poppy capsules are also of two kinds, one from which the juice has been extracted and the other from which it has not been extracted, and each kind of poppy-heads has a different limit of quantity prescribed under the law, exceeding which the possession is declared illegal. In the present case, according to the trial Court, there is absolutely no evidence as to how much quantity of poppy-heads consisted of those from which juice had been extracted and how much from which it had not been extracted.

The weight of the entire quantity of poppy-heads was merely given as 20 seers. The evidence on the record, as the learned Magistrate has observed, merely establishes that some bhukki and dodas were recovered from the accused and out of the latter some were broken and some unbroken. With these findings the Court below came to the conclusion that the substance recovered from the accused did not under the law fall within the definition of the word opium and therefore there was no violation of Section 9 of the Opium Act. The trial Court was also doubtful if the accused person could be present at the place from where he was alleged to have been arrested, because he was shown, in the register produced by the Station Master, to be on duty.

3. On appeal, Mr. Saluja, counsel for the State, has drawn cur attention to the notification dated 28-1-1957 under Section 5 of the Opium Act reproduced at pages 13 and 14 of the Lahore Law Times of 1957, Part V, according to which possession of excise opium or impregnated poppy-heads up to a certain limit has been exempted from the operation of the Opium Act. It is also stated in this notification that possession of any kind of opium other than excise opium and opium extracted poppy-heads in any quantity is prohibited unless specifically provided in the Punjab Opium Orders.

Mr. Saluja has submitted that possession of every kind of opium except excise opium is prohibited and it was so prohibited on 17-4-1957 when the accused was caught. The counsel has also drawn our attention to the later amendment dated 21-3-1958 in the Punjab Opium Orders by which the expression poppy-heads has been defined to mean the capsules of the poppy (Papaver Somniferum L.) whether