Supreme Court - Daily Orders
Mahyco Vegetable Seeds Ltd (Now Known As ... vs The State Of Maharashtra on 10 July, 2017
Bench: Ranjan Gogoi, Navin Sinha
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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CRIMINAL APPEAL NO(S).1092 OF 2017
(Arising out of SLP(Crl.) No.4017/2017)
MAHYCO VEGETABLE SEEDS LTD
(NOW KNOWN AS MAHARASHTRA
HYBRID SEEDS CO PVT LTD) AND ORS. APPELLANT(S)
VERSUS
THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND ORS. RESPONDENT(S)
O R D E R
1. Leave granted.
2. The accused-appellant(s) who have failed in convincing the High Court to quash the criminal proceedings have assailed the Order dated 06.04.2017 of the High Court in this appeal.
3. We have heard the learned counsels for the parties.
4. The point agitated is short and precise. The sample of seeds was taken on 01.09.2002 and the report of the Seed Analyst is dated 26.09.2002. The shelf life of the sample was till 07.11.2002 which is evident from the details of the samples taken, Signature Not Verified Digitally signed by NEETU KHAJURIA mentioned in Form-VIII. A complaint was filed on Date: 2017.07.12 01:44:51 IST Reason: 31.01.2003. Under Section 16(2) of the Seeds Act, 1966 after institution of above prosecution, the 2 accused or the complainant, as may be, is vested with a right to make an application to the Court for sending a part of the sample to the Central Seed Laboratory for reanalysis. Such pari materia provisions in other statutes have been held by this Court to be mandatory, vesting a valuable right either in the accused or the complainant as may be.
5. In the present case, by the time the complaint came to be filed on 31.01.2003, the sample has lost its shelf life. If that be so, the accused-appellant must be understood to have been deprived of his valuable right of reanalysis.
6. Such deprivation will go to the root of the matter and render the prosecution futile and redundant. If that is so, we are inclined to hold that there is no reason why the proceedings should not be quashed. We order accordingly.
7. The order of the High Court is set aside and the appeal is allowed.
....................,J.
(RANJAN GOGOI) ....................,J.
(NAVIN SINHA)
NEW DELHI
JULY 10, 2017
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ITEM NO.28 COURT NO.4 SECTION II-A
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No(s). 4017/2017
(Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 06-04-2017 in CRLWP No. 517/2003 passed by the High Court of Bombay at Aurangabad) MAHYCO VEGETABLE SEEDS LTD (NOW KNOWN AS MAHARASHTRA HYBRID SEEDS CO PVT LTD) AND ORS. Petitioner(s) VERSUS THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND ORS. Respondent(s) Date : 10-07-2017 This petition was called on for hearing today. CORAM :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RANJAN GOGOI HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE NAVIN SINHA For Petitioner(s) Mr. Subramonium Prasad, Sr Adv.
Mr. Shivi Shetty, Adv.
Mr. Prashant Pakhede, Adv. Mr. Abhay Kumar, AOR Mr. Vineet Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Bilal Khan, Adv.
Mr. Himanshu, Adv.
For Respondent(s) Mr. Nishant R. Katneshwarkar, AOR Ms. Deepa Kulkarni, Adv.
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R Leave granted.
The appeal is allowed in terms of the signed order.
Pending application(s), if any, stand disposed of.
(NEETU KHAJURIA) (ASHA SONI)
COURT MASTER BRANCH OFFICER
(Signed order is placed on the file.)