IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Criminal Miscellaneous No.41239 of 2008 Rabindra Prasad, son of Kailash Prasad, resident of Village-Deviganj Kesariya, P.S. Kesariya, District-East Champaran, Motihari……………………………Petitioner. Versus The State Of Bihar………………………..Opposite Party. ---------------------------------- For the Petitioner : M/s. Shanti Kumar and Ajit Lal, Advocates. For the State : Mr. Jharkhandi Upadhyay, A.P.P. --------------------------------- 5. 29.8.2011. Heard. This application, under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, is directed against the order dated 21.11.2007 passed by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Motihari, taking cognizance of the offence under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act on submission of the chargesheet in Keshariya P.S. Case No.128 of 2007 against the accused-petitioner. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submits that there is no violation of the provision of L.P.G. (Regulation of Supply and Distribution) Order, 2000 because the nearby persons and villagers living at a distance of 20 kilometers from the distributing gas agency 2 used to keep their cylinders both filled up and empty to receive and carry for the sake of their convenience and the petitioner has nothing to do with the business. As per the written report of Block Supply Officer, Keshariya, which is the basis of the Keshariya P.S. Case No.128 of 2007, the allegation is that in course of verification by the informant on the direction dated 20.9.2007 of the Sub Divisional Officer seizing the truck loaded with 63 L.P.G. cylinders in front of the house of the accused-petitioner, he found the Tata mini truck bearing registration no.BR-06G- 3020, in front of the house of the accused-petitioner loaded with 25 filled up gas cylinder of Indane Company and again found 26 filled up gas cylinders from the house of the accused-petitioner, out of which 24 cylinders of Indane Company and 2 cylinders were of H.P. Company. Out of 24 cylinders of Indane Company, 8 were empty and 2 were of commercial, which were seized, which is contravention of the provisions of L.P.G. (Regulation of Supply and Distribution) Order, 2000. According to Rule-6 of the L.P.G. (Regulation of Supply and Distribution) Order, 2000, no person other than a Government Oil Company, a parallel marketeer or a 3 distributor shall be engaged in the business of selling liquefied petroleum gas to the consumer. As such the recovery of empty and filled up gas cylinders from the house of the petitioner is suffice to constitute the offence under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act against the accused-petitoner. I find no illegality in the impugned order which has been passed by the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate on perusal of the case diary. Accordingly, this application stands dismissed. P.S. (Rajendra Kumar Mishra, J)