Case: Sk. Amir Vs. The State Of Maharashtra

1. On March 10, 1966 the appellant was apprehended by a Railway constable at the gate of the Malkapur Railway Station, immediately after he had obtained the delivery of a parcel. The parcel was found to contain 95,000 capsules of Seco Barbital Sodium which is a sedative agent and is commonly used for intoxication. The intoxicant is popularly called "Lal Paari".2. The appellant was tried by the learned Judicial Magistrate. First Class, Malkapur for offence under Sections 18 (a)(ii) and 18(c) read with Section 27 (a)(ii) and 27(b) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 23 of 1940, on the charge that he had stocked for a sale misbranded drug and that he had no license for stocking the drug for sale. The appellant admitted that he was carrying the parcel at the time of his arrest but his defence was that he took delivery of the parcel on behalf of the Mahamud Jamadar who had represented to him that the parcel contained a science apparatus meant for a school. The Magistrate rejected this defence as untrue, convicted the appellant and sentenced him to pay a fine of Rs.1200/-.3. In appeal the learned Sessions Judge, Buldana acquitted the appellant on the view that though the facts raised a suspicion that the appellant or some other person on whose behalf the appellant had taken delivery of the parcel may have had the object of selling the capsules, the mere fact that the appellant was carrying the parcel would not justify the inference that the drug was stocked for sale.4. That decision was set aside in appeal by the High Court of Bombay (Nagpur Bench) which held that the prosecution had proved conclusively that the accused had stocked the drug for sale. The High Court sentenced the appellant to the minimum sentence of one years imprisonment, prescribed by the Act. This appeal by special leave is directed against the judgment of the High Court.

Reasoning: 8. We see no substance in this argument. Section 18 (a) of the Act which lays down an injunction that no person shall stock for sale a drug of certain description, Section 18 (c) which says that no person shall stock for sale a drug except in accordance with the conditions of a licence issued for such purposes and Section 27(a) which prescribes a penalty for a person who stocks for sale a misbranded drug or a drug in respect of which no valid licence is held, do not use the word stock in any technical sense. The plain meaning of the word stock in these provisions of the Act is to keep and the injunction of the law means no more than this that no person shall keep for sale a misbranded drug or a drug in respect of which a valid licence is not held. It is not necessary that the drug should be stored in a place in order that it can be said to have been stocked for sale. If anyone keeps or carries a drug on his person in contravention of the terms of the Act and it is proved that the drug is kept or carried for sale the act must fall within the mischief of the law under consideration. In busy commercial cities, the streets are crowde with mobile hawkers who display their wares on their person. It is neither sound commonsense nor sound law to say that such wares are not stocked for sale. What is intended for sale can as such be stocked on ones person as in a shop or in a godown. Keeping for sale is of the essence of the matter not the mode and the manner of keeping. To keep for sale is to stock for sale. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (Third Edition p. 2025) gives the meaning of the word stock as "To lay up in store : to form a stock or supply of (a commodity)...To keep (goods) in stocks for sale".The large quantity of 95,000 capsules found in the possession of the appellant leves no doubt that he had stocked or kept the drug for sale. It could not have been meant for his personal use and his defence that he had received the parcel on behalf of another person, not knowing what it contained, was rightly rejected by all the three courts.