ORDER

1. The petitioner has filed the present petition under section 482 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short, ‘CrPC’) seeking quashment of FIR dated 31.8.2016 in Crime No. 493/2016, registered at Police Station Industrial Area, Jaora, District Ratlam (M. P.), under EC Act.

2. The facts contained in the petition are that the petitioner is the quality compliance officer of Paradeep Phosphate Ltd., a company registered under Companies Act, 1956, having its registered office at Bhubaneswar at Orissa. The petitioner is responsible for quality of fertilizer.

3. That, the Paradeep Phosphate Ltd. company is into the business of manufacturing, storing, packing, distributing, transporting of fertilizers, chemicals. The company manufactures and supplies diammonium phosphates, several grades of NP and NPK fertilizers. Company is one of the leading companies and has been issued ISO 9001 : 2008 certificate which is valid up to 24.7.2018. Copy of the ISO certificate is submitted herewith and marked as Annexure P-2.

4. That, since fertilizers fall into the Union list of the Constitution of India, therefore the Central Government had promulgated the Fertilizer (Control) Order, 1985 in exercise of its powers available to it under the provision of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 (hereinafter referred as ‘the EC Act’), for the purposes of regulating the manufacture, sale and distribution of the fertilizers in the entire territories of the country.

5. That, the company applied for the registration and authorization in the State of Madhya Pradesh for entitling the company to carry on the business related to the fertilizers. The State of M. P., vide its order dated 25.6.2014, issued the letter of authorization in accordance with the provisions of Control Order, 1985.

6. That, the company is having the manufacturing plant at Orissa where the different grades of NPK are manufactured in accordance with the Schedules of Control Order, 1985. It is pertinent to mention that the company sells the fertilizer through the authorized dealer in different States who, in turn, sells the fertilizer through dealer. In the present case also, the company is having the authorized dealer at District Ratlam, namely, Kothari Agencies and Jaora Fertilizer Company.

7. That, during the process of manufacturing of the fertilizers, the company takes absolute care in adhering to the prescribed standards and dispatches the fertilizer from out of the factory premises in the shape of properly sealed and stitched bags, for avoiding any possibilities of fertilizer being spoiled; however, when the bags sometimes get opened up in loose shunting and/or get exposed to the moisture, it changes the phosphorous contents of the fertilizer, being water soluble.

8. That, the company, vide the dispatch dated 4.6.2015, sent the NPK Fertilizer 20:20:0:13 through Railway racks for sale in State of Madhya Pradesh. Two consignments from the said rack were sent to Ratlam, which were received on 4.7.2015. The company operates through the authorized dealers, therefore, the required quantity was delivered to Kothari Agencies as well as the Jaora Fertilizer Company.

9. The petitioner submits that the samples were collected from agency Arvind and Company which was, after analysis, found to be sub-standard. The other sample was sent to Hamirpur at Uttar Pradesh which also showed that the sample was sub-standard. Samples were also collected from one more agency called Atlas Iron Works, Jaora. Its first sample was found to be sub-standard and the second sample was sent to Ratlam where the same was found, on re-analysis, as conforming to the prescribed standards.

10. In view of the fact that both the samples drawn from Arvind and Company agency gave adverse reports, an order was issued by the respondent No. 2 to stop sale and action was directed to be initiated against the concerned persons by the respondent No. 2 to respondent No. 3. Despite clarification offered by the petitioner, FIR was regis