NDLI: M/s Cheminova India Limited & Anr. Vs. State of Punjab and Ors.

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	Insecticides Act 1968: s.33
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Law Judgement
Jurisdiction	India
Act(s) Referred	Insecticides Act, 1968 (46 of 1968)
Case(s) Referred	Referred Case 0
Case Type	Appeal
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Appeal Allowed
Headnote	Insecticides Act, 1968: s.33 – Allegation of misbranding – Complaint against the appellant-manufacturing company and appellant-Managing Director of the company and other accused under ss.3(k)(i),17,18 and 33 – High Court dismissed the petition for quashing the complaint – In the instant appeal, plea of appellants was that they had nominated the manager to be incharge and responsible officer of the company to maintain quality of the pesticides manufactured by company and had filed the undertaking to that effect before the respondents along with the resolution of the Company’s meeting – Held: Filing of the undertaking with the respondents is not disputed – The specific provision of the Act dealing with the offence by companies states that only responsible person of the company as well as the company alone shall be deemed to be guilty of offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against – In view of that, Managing Director of the company cannot be prosecuted on vague allegation that he being Managing Director was overall responsible for conduct of business of company and of quality control – As all other nominated / responsible persons of the Company are already accused in the complaint, there is no basis to proceed against the appellant-Managing Director to prosecute him for the alleged offences – However, there is no ground at this stage to quash the proceedings against the appellant-Company. Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973: s.202 – Plea of appellant that before taking cognizance of offence on complaint, Magistrate has not followed the procedure, contemplated under s.24(4) of the Insecticides Act and s.202 Cr.PC and that though the appellants are not residing within the jurisdiction of the Magistrate, the cognizance of offence was taken without making proper inquiry and ordering investigation – Held: The legislature in its wisdom has itself placed the public servant on a different pedestal, as isevident from a perusal of proviso to s.200 of the Code – Object of holding an inquiry/investigation before taking cognizance, in cases where accused resides outside the territorial jurisdiction of such Magistrate, is to ensure that innocents are not harassed unnecessarily – By virtue of proviso to s.200 of Code, the Magistrate, while taking cognizance, need not record statement of such public servant, who has filed the complaint in discharge of his official duty – Further, by virtue of s.293 of Code, report of the Government Scientific Expert is, per se, admissible in evidence – The Code of Criminal Procedure itself provides for exemption from examination of such witnesses, when the complaint is filed by a public servant – In the instant case, the second Respondent/Public Servant, in exercise of powers under provisions of the Insecticides Act, 1968 had filed complaint enclosing several documents including reports of the Government Laboratories, therefore, it was always open for the Magistrate to issue process on such complaint which was supported by documents – In any event, there is no merit in the submissions that proceedings are to be quashed only on the ground that, the Magistrate has taken cognizance without conducting inquiry and ordering investigation – In absence of showing any prejudice caused to the appellant at this stage, the same is no ground to quash the proceedings in exercise of power under s.482 of the Code – Insecticides Act, 1968: ss.24(4). 33.
Judge	Hon'ble Mr. Justice R.Subhash Reddy
Neutral Citation	2021 INSC 381
Petitioner	M/s Cheminova India Limited & Anr.
Respondent	State Of Punjab And Ors.
SCR	[2021] 8 S.C.R. 360
Judgement Date	2021-08-04
Case Number	750

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