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Judgment
V. Ramkumar, J.—The petitioner herein is the third accused in C.C. No. 480/2009 on the file of the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Erattupetta. He is the Manager and Nominee of the fourth accused Firm. The offences alleged against him are those punishable u/s 7(i) read with 16(ia)(i) and read with Section 2(ia)(m) of Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. The article of food involved is gingelly oil.
The case is now pending before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Erattupetta as C.C. No. 480/2009. The petitioner has not appeared before that court in response to the summons issued against him. He has filed this application to quash all proceedings in the above.
The learned Counsel for the petitioner would submit that, since the prosecution was launched on 4.8.09, i.e.; after April 2009, which was the expiry date of the gingelly oil, the petitioner could not effectively exercise his right u/s 13(2) of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 and he is prejudiced in his defence. The prosecution should therefore be quashed.
It is too early for this Court to quash the prosecution as an abuse of the process of court. It is for the petitioner to raise all the defences available to him before the trial court and rely on the decisions cited by him before this Court and reported in 1975 (I) FAC 186, 1996 (1) FAC 304 and R. Narayana Swamy and Another Vs. The Food Inspector and Another, . Hence, without prejudice to the right of the petitioner to raise all contentions available to him before the Magistrate, this petition is dismissed. The petitioner may appear before the learned Magistrate within two weeks from today and apply for regular bail. In case, he files an application for regular bail within two weeks from today, the same shall be considered and disposed of, notwithstanding the pendency of any non bailable warrants against him.