HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD Criminal Petition No.7862 of 2009 Dated : 24.09.2009 Between : M/S.Siva Sai Medical Corporation and another ….. Petitioners a n d The State of A.P. and another ….. Respondents HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD Criminal Petition No.7862 of 2009 ORDER: Heard Sri P.Anand Seshu, learned counsel for the petitioners, and Sri A.Ramesh, learned counsel representing the learned Public Prosecutor for both the respondents. The petitioners are facing prosecution along with four others in C.C.No.598 of 2005 on the file of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Vijayawada, for an alleged offence punishable under the provisions of Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, (for short ‘the Act’). The petitioners, who are the third and fourth accused in the complaint, were stated to be the purchasers of the subject drug from the fifth accused represented by the sixth accused and they were claimed to have further sold the drug to the first accused represented by the second accused. The contents of the complaint do not in any manner allege that the petitioners have meddled or tampered with the drug in question while it was in their possession. The petitioners claim the protection of Section 19 (3) of the Act for that reason and by exercise of any reasonable diligence, the petitioners could not have detected the subject drug to be sub-standard or spurious or adulterated. The purchase and sale of the drug is not stated to be in violation of any statutory provisions. Under the circumstances, the principle adopted in Crl.P.No.1798 of 2009 on the file of this Court in the order dated 15.07.2009 following the earlier decision of this Court has to apply for the benefit of the petitioners also and the statutory protection should be extended to them. Therefore, the further proceedings in C.C.No.598 of 2005 on the file of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Vijayawada, against the petitioners are quashed and the criminal petition is allowed accordingly. ______________________ G.BHAVANI PRASAD, J 24th September, 2009 SUR