( 1 ) THE applicant is the manager of the Badal Ram Lakshami Narain Oil Mills at Banaras and has been convicted under Section 7, Essential Supplies (Temporary Powers) Act, 1946 (XXIV [24] of 1946) for committing a breach of the provisions of the U. P. Oil Seeds and Oil Seeds Products control Order, 1945, inasmuch as a large stock of linseed oil-seeds received by the Mills was not entered in their registers, as it ought to have been under the conditions of the licence, for a period of nearly ten days. The trial Court sentenced the applicant to a fine of Rs. 500/-, but the lower appellate Court finding that the omission did not appear to have been dishonest and was due only to negligence or carelessness reduced the amount of the fine to Rs. 50/ -.

( 2 ) IN this Court it is argued that linseed oil-seeds not being an essential commodity as defined in section 2 of the Act, the Control Order of 1945 cannot be said to have been kept alive by Section 17 of the Act in so far as it relates to linseed oil-seeds. In a case just decided by me--Gopi krishna Malviya v. State, (Cri. Revn. No. 222 of 1950 D/- 21-8-1950) I have held that only such orders passed under the Essential Supplies (Temporary Powers) Ordinance, 1946 (XVIII [18] of 1946) were kept alive by Section 17 of the Act as related to essential commodities as defined in section 2 of Act XXIV [24] of 1946. The Control Order of 1945 is one of the orders passed under the Essential Supplies (Temporary Powers) Ordinance, 1946, which was repealed by section 17 of Act XXIV [24] of 1946, and it is necessary to see whether linseed oil-seeds are included in the definition of "essential commodity" as given in Section 2 of that Act. Clause (a)of Section 2 provides that "essential commodity" means any of the classes of commodities mentioned in that clause. These include "foodstuffs" and in Clause (c) of the same section "food stuffs" have been defined as including "edible oil-seeds and oils". The word edible, according to websters Dictionary, in its adjectival sense, means fit to be eaten as food; eatable, esculent. according to Chambers 20th Century Dictionary edible in its adjectival sense means fit to be eaten. Similarly according to the shorter Oxford Dictionary the word edible in its adjectival sense means eatable, fit to be eaten. According to Websters Dictionary one of the manners in which linseed oil-seed is used is, as a food. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, Edn. 11.

"linseed formed an article of food among the Greeks and Romans and it is said that the abyasinians at the present day eat it roasted. The oil is to some extent used as food in Russia and in parts of Poland and Hungary".

The question whether linseed is or is not used as an article of food in India was not raised in the court below and no evidence was taken as to whether linseed is or is not used as a food by any class of people in India. But if the dictionary meaning to be assigned to the word edible is to be accepted linseeds oil-seeds must be regarded as edible oil-seeds in the sense that they can be eaten and are fit to be used as food whether they are, in practice, commonly used as a foodstuff or not in India.

( 3 ) MY attention has been drawn to a number of publications and it is pointed out that in this country linseed oil-seeds are not regarded as a food-stuff. It cannot be said that these publications lead to the necessary conclusion that linseed oil-seeds are in fact not regarded as edible oil-seeds in this country. But there can be no doubt that they indicate that these oilseeds are not commonly regarded as an article of food. In a notification published in the U. P. Government Gazette, Extraordinary, dated 31-8-1946, the schedule to the U. P. Oilseeds and oilseeds Products Price Control Order, 1946, was substituted by a fresh schedule and in this schedule mustard and rape seeds and linseed are classed under two separate headings* Later the word edible has been printed with-in brackets