" Aggrieved by the aforesaid order of the Special Magistrate, the appellants moved the High Court of Punjab and Harayana under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution and section 561 A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 challenging their prosecution inter alia on the grounds that the Control Order and the notification which formed the basis of their prosecution did not have the force of law as they had not been laid before the Houses of Parliament within a reasonable time as required under section 3(6) of the Act; that the Control Order and the Notification fixing the maximum selling price of the commodity in question for the contravention of which the appellants had been hauled up were invalid as the same did not appear to be preceded by the formation of the requisite opinion under section 3(1) of the Act which was a sine qua non for issue of any order by the Central Government or by the Controller; that none of the 18 concerns which, according to the prosecution sold the aforesaid B.P. sheets to the appellants and who were equally guilty of the offence under section 7 of the Act having been proceeded against, in the Court of the competent jurisdiction, the prosecution of the appellants was violative of Article 14 of the Constitution and that the purchases of the aforesaid B.P. sheets having been openly made and entered in the account books of appellant No. 1, the mens rea which was a necessary ingredient of the offence under section 7 of the Act was totally lacking in the case.