N Criminal Appeal No 105 of 1975
Appeal by Special Leave from the Judgment and Order dated 6 8 1974 of the Delhi High Court in Criminal Revision No 58 of 1973
Frank Anthony K C Dua and O P Soni for the Appellants
J Sorabjee Additional Soli
General B P Maheshwari and Suresh Sethi for the Respondents
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by FAZAL ALI J
This appeal by special leave is directed against the Judgment of the Delhi High Court convicting the appellant under section 716 of the  read with Section 2ix clause a  g of the Act and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment of six months and a fine of Rs 1000 
This order was passed by the High Court in a revision filed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi against the Order of the Trial Court which convicted the appellant under section 715 of the read with Section 2ix k of the Act and sentenced him to imprisonment till the rising of the Court and a fine of Rs 500  a revision against this order to the Sessions Judge was unsuccessful and hence a further revision was taken by the Delhi Administration before the High Court
The facts of the case are detailed in the Judgment of the High Court and the Magistrate and we need not repeat the same all over again
The food Inspectors namely one Mr James and Mr Sinha took samples of a preparation called Para Excellant and Para Asli from the shop of the appellant who according to the Food Inspectors sold these preparations as saccharin a fact which is not admitted by the appellant
The Trial Court after considering the evidence and the report of the Chemical Examiner found that the case of mis branding under section 2ix a  g was not made out by the Prosecution but it was certainly mis branding as contemplated by section 2ix k of the Act
He accordingly convicted the appellant as indicated above
Mr Frank Anthony Learned Counsel for the appellant has submitted that the High Court was wrong in law in interfering with the Order of the Magistrate firstly because the findings of fact by the 553 Magistrate was binding on the High Court in revision and secondly because the High Court took a legally erroneous view of the law on the interpretation of Section 2ix a  g of the 
We have heard learned counsel for the parties and have perused the judgment of the High Court and we are of the opinion that the contentions raised by the learned counsel for the appellant is well founded and must prevail
We have perused the original label which described the preparation sold to the food inspectors
There is nothing to show that the appellant in any way tried to give an impression to the purchaser that either saccharin or some preparation of the type of saccharin was being sold so as to amount to misbranding as contemplated by Section 2ix a  g of the Act
All that the appellant purported to convey under the label was that the preparation sold was as sweet as saccharin but not as bitter as saccharin
This was intended merely to lay emphasis on the sweetness of the preparation when it was compared to the sweetness of saccharin
When the label clearly described the fact that the preparation was not as bitter as saccharin it clearly intended to convey that it was neither something like saccharin nor saccharin itself in any form or of any type
Mr Sorabjee appearing for the respondent submitted that the use of the word saccharin itself amounts to mis branding and gives the impression that the preparation sold was saccharin or something akin to saccharin
We are unable to agree with this contention
In the facts and circumstances of the present case and the contents of the label and the description of the preparation we are satisfied that there was no misbranding nor was there any attempt on the part of the appellant to sell his preparation as saccharin or some sort of saccharin
Section 2ix a runs as follows Misbranded an article of food shall be deemed to be misbranded a If it is an imitation of or is a substitute for or resembles in a manner likely to deceive another article of food under the name of which it is sold and is not plainly and conspicuously labelled so as to indicate its true character
 According to the Additional Solicitor General of India the sale by the appellant of the preparation clearly falls within iii clause of sub section a that is to say the preparation resembles saccharin so as to deceive a person who wanted to purchase the article of food 554 known as saccharin
After having examined the label its description and the contents of the tin and packets sold to the food inspectors we are unable to find any evidence of any intention on the part of the appellant to sell a preparation which resembles saccharin in any respect
The words as sweet as saccharin were merely meant to convey one of the qualities of the preparation itself and not the quality of saccharin at all
That by itself would not attract the provision of Section 2ix a of the Act
It was then submitted that in one of the labels under the directions it was mentioned that the preparation was para saccharin which also shows that the appellant intended to pass on the preparation as some sort of saccharin
In the first place the use of the word para saccharin appears to be a mistake in the facts of the present case because this word is completely absent from the Hindi portion of the directions contained in the same label
Secondly the word para saccharin would not indicate that the preparation sold was saccharin in any form or of any kind
It was just a way of describing it because according to the manufacturers the preparation was as sweet as saccharin
This was mentioned because saccharin being 500 times sweeter than sugar the manufacturer wanted to convey that the preparation was also much sweeter than sugar and could be used for preparing soda water bottles
It is obvious that if any person who purchased the preparation was not conversent with the English language he would not be misled at all
Having regard to these circumstances we are of the opinion that the case of the appellant does not fall within the clauses a  g of Section 2ix of the Act and the High Court erred in law in convicting the appellant for misbranding under these provisions
For the reasons given above the appeal is allowed
The order of the High Court is set aside and the sentence of imprisonment of six months is also set aside and the fine is reduced to Rs 500 
In other words the order of the Trial Court Magistrate is hereby restored
The appeal is accordingly allowed
NVK Appeal allowed


Summary:
The appellant was a manufacturer of a preparation called Para Excellent and Para Asli The outer label of the package describe the contents as as sweet as saccharin
Under the directions for use it was mentioned on the label that the preparation was para saccharin
The appellant was prosecuted under s2ixa and g of the for misbranding the goods and for selling it as saccharin
While the trial court convicted and sentenced the appellant to imprisonment and a fine on the ground that though a case of misbranding under section 2ix a and g had not been made out it was a case of misbranding contemplated by section 2ix k the High Court in revision enhanced the sentence and fine under sections 7 and 16 read with section 2ixa and g of the Act
On behalf of the prosecution it was contended in the appellant s appeal to this Court that the use of the word saccharin gave the impression that the preparation was saccharin or something akin to it and it was therefore a case of misbranding punishable under the Act
Allowing the appeal
 HELD 1
There is nothing on the facts of the case to show that the appellant in any way tried to give an impression to the purchasers that either saccharin or some preparation of the type of saccharin was being sold so as to amount to misbranding as contemplated by section 2iva and g of the Act
Nor was there an attempt to sell the preparation as saccharin or some kind of saccharin
When the label described that the preparation was as sweet as saccharin it merely laid emphasis on the sweetness of the preparation when compared to the sweetness of the saccharin
Similarly when the label described the preparation was not as bitter as saccharin it was intended to convey that it was neither something like saccharin nor saccharin itself in any form or of any type
553 C D 2
Nor again was there any evidence of intention on the part of the appellant to sell a preparation which resembles saccharin in any respect
The words as sweet as saccarin were merely meant to convey one of the qualities of the preparation itself and not the quality of saccharin
That by itself would not attract the provisions of section 2ixa of the Act
554 B 3
The use of the word para saccharin appears to be a mistake
In the Hindi portion of the directions contained in the label the words para Saccharin were not used
Secondly the word para saccharin would not indicate that 552 the preparation sold was saccharin in any form or of any kind
It was just a way of describing the contents because the preparation was as sweet as saccharin  The manufacturer wanted to convey that the preparation wasa also much sweeter than sugar and could be used for preparing soda water
554 C D