P L D 1963 (W (PLP)

(Sd). Coal Commissioner." The information supplied by the petitioner in the third column is alleged to be wrong. This column requires the person sub mitting the return to state his monthly consumption in tons. The contention of the prosecution is that only that quantity of coal is to be mentioned under this head which has been actually burnt in the furnaces of the factory. It is asserted that the quantity mentioned by the petitioner in this column has, on the checking up of the records, been found to include not only the quantity of coal actually burnt in the furnaces of the factory, but also some quantity which had either been given byway of loan to other factory owners or had been sold to them by him. It is contended that this falls within the mis chief of section 9 of the Essential Supplies Act and is, therefore, punishable.

5. Section 9 runs as follows :‑ " False statements.‑If any person‑ (i) when required by an order made under section 3 to make any statement or furnish any information makes any state ment or furnishes any information which is false in any material particular and which he knows or has reasonable cause to believe to be false, or does not believe to be true, or (ii) makes any statement as aforesaid in any book, account, record, declaration, return or other document which he is required by any such order to maintain or furnish; he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine or with both." Section 3, which is referred to in the above‑mentioned section, runs as follows :‑ "Powers to make orders, etc.‑(I) The Central Government so far as it appears to it to be necessary or expedient for secur ing the equitable distribution of an essential commodity between the Provinces or between a Province and the Federal Capital and availability at fair prices, may, by notified order provide for regulating the movement, transport and sale of the essential commodity between the Provinces or between a Province and the Federal Capital and for the prices to be charged or paid for it at any stage of transaction therein. (2) Without prejudice to the generality of the powers con ferred by subsection (1), an order made thereunder may provide‑ (a) for controlling the prices at which any essential commo dity may be brought or sold in any area ; (b) for regulating by licenses, permits or otherwise, the transport, movement and distribution between the Provinces or between a Province and the Federal Capital of an essential commodity ; (c) for prohibiting the withholding of sale between the Pro vinces or between a Province and the Federal Capital of an essential commodity ordinarily kept for sale ; (d) for requiring any person holding stock in the Federal Capital or in a Province of an essential commodity to sell in another Province or in the Federal Capital the whole or specific part of the stock at such price to such persons or class of persons under such circumstances as may be specified in the order ; (e) for collecting any information or statistics with a view to regulating or prohibiting any of the aforesaid matters ; (f) for requiring persons engaged in any of the matters mentioned above in respect of any essential commodity to main tain and produce for inspection such books, accounts and records relating to their business and to furnish such informa tion relating thereto as may be specified in the order ; (g) for any incidental and supplementary matters, including in particular the entering, and search of promises, vehicles, vessels and aircraft, the seizure by a person authorised to make such search of any articles in respect of which such person has reason to believe that a contravention of the Order has been, is being or is about to be committed, or any records connected therewith, the grant or issue of licenses, permits or other documents, and the charging of fees therefore." In exercise of the powers enjoyed by the Central Government under section 3 of this Act the said Government notified an Order, known as the Pakistan Coal Control Order, in the Gazette of Pakistan, dated the 5th of November '1948. The notification is published under No. M. (Coal) 3 (2)/48 and is dated the 2nd of November 1948. It has been notified by the Ministry of Education and Industries. Since the various provisions of this Order shall have to be considered for determining this case, and in any case this is a short Order, the same is being reproduced as follows :‑ "In exercise of the powers conferred by section 3 of the Essential Supplies (Temporary Powers) Act, 1946 (XVIII of 1946), the Central Government is pleased to make the following Order:- 1. (1) This Order may be called the Pakistan Coal Control Order, 1948. (2) It extends to all the Provinces of Pakistan and the Capital of the Federation. (3) It shall come into force at once.

2. In this Order‑ (a) `Coal' includes coke ; (2) `Dispose of includes‑ (a) agreeing or offering to dispose of, (b) the disposal of‑‑ (i) ownership or any proprietory interest, (ii) the right of possession, (iii) possession, whether or not accompanied by any dis posal of ownership of any proprietory interest or of the right to possession. (3) `Stock‑holder' means any person or firm holding stocks of coal whether for sale or for his own consumption.

3. The Central Government may, by order in writing, requisition coal held by any person in stock or in transit on his account or prohibit the disposal or sale of such coal, or direct such person to sell the whole or any part thereof to any other person mentioned in the order. The coal so requisitioned or directed to be sold to another person shall be paid for at a reasonable price to be fixed by an officer authorised by the Central Government in this behalf.

4. The Central Government may, by order in writing, direct any person holding any stocks of coal, to furnish infor mation regarding the stocks of coal held by him or in his custody. The Central Government may also direct any person on whose account coal is. in transit from any place outside Pakistan to furnish information regarding the coal so in transit.

5. An officer authorised by the Central Government in this behalf, if he has reasons to believe that any person has contravened or is likely to contravene any provisions of this order may‑ (a) inspect or cause to be inspected any book or other documents belonging to or under the control of such person, (b) (b) enter and search or authorise any person to enter and search any premises occupied by or under the control of such person and seize or authorise any person to seize any coal in respect of which he has reason to believe that a contra vention of this Order has been committed or is likely to be committed.

6. The functions of the Central Government under clauses 3 to 5 of this Order shall be exercisable also by the Coal Commissioner of the Government of Pakistan.

7. Any person who contravenes, or attempts to contravene, or abets the contravention of any order issued or direction given by any authority mentioned in this Order shall be deemed to have committed an offence under the Essential Supplies (Tempo rary Powers) Act, 1946 (XVIII of 1946)." It is contended by the prosecution that the petitioner was required to file the return in question by the Coal Commis sioner in exercise of the powers conferred by rule 4 of this Order.

6. Mr. Mahmud Ali Qasuri, appearing on behalf of the petitioner, has submitted that under clause 4, of the Coal Control Order the Central Government could demand information about stocks of coal held by the petitioner in his custody. He says that the Coal Commissioner in requiring the petitioner also to submit information with regard to his monthly consumption off coal has acted beyond the authority vested in him by law. He submits that section 3 (2) (e) authorises the Government to provide by notified order for collecting any information of statistics with a view to regulating or prohibiting any of the matters referred to in it. The Coal Control Order, which was notified under this section by the Government, authorised it to direct any person holding any stocks of coal, by order in writing, to furnish information regarding the stocks of coal held by him or in his custody. As already stated, his objection is that the! Coal Commissioner, while acting as the Central Government, could not ask for any information except with regard to the stocks of coal held by him. He submits that amount of consumption has got nothing to do with the stocks held by him and that there is no allegation that his client submitted any false information with regard to the stock actually held by him. This contention has force in it, and I have no hesitation in accept ing it as being correct.

7. The next contention raised by the learned counsel for the petitioner is that the Government admittedly never made any direction under clause 3 or 5 of the Coal Control Order wherefore the question of its infringement does not arise.

8. The third contention raised by the learned counsel is that the form of returns filled in by the petitioner is not prescribed by any rule or statute and, therefore, even if wrong information bad been given, it would not be an offence covered by any provision of the law. I do not agree with these contentions of the learned counsel. It is admitted that the Coal Control Order was validly promulgated in exercise of lawful authority conferred upon the Central Government and the Coal Commis sioner by the Essential Supplies Act, 1947. Under clause 4, the Government could direct any person holding any stocks of coal to furnish information regarding the stocks of coal held by him or in his custody. The Coal Commissioner, acting in exercise of this power, required the petitioner to submit information. The petitioner, in submitting information in compli ance with such an order of a Coal Commissioner, would, if he gave wrong information, be contravening clause 7 of this Order, which makes the contravener of a direction given by any authority mentioned in this Order liable for an offence under the Act of 1946. When a person is required to submit infor mation he has to submit correct information and not false information, and if he submits false information, he is contra vening an order made by an authority under clause 4, requiring him to furnish information regarding the stock of coal. This conclusion, however, would not make any difference so far as the instant case is concerned, because I have already held that the Coal Commissioner could not require a person to submit a return of the consumption of coal.

9. Learned counsel has also submitted that the form in which returns were required to be submitted itself says that non‑submission of stock return in time will cause the stoppage of coal or coke supplies. He contends that a penalty having been provided by the form itself it is not open to the Govern ment to make any person liable to a further penalty under the Essential Supplies Act also. I do not find myself in agreement with this submission either. The form as has already been said; is not a notified Order, but has been prepared by an authority functioning under that Order. It cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be said that it is open to such authority while acting under that Order to repeal or modify the Essential Supplies Act or the Order itself. Since the Order itself says that contravention of a direction issued under that Order is an offence under the Essential Supplies Act, it is not open to the functionary to provide a penalty which could override the penalty provided by the Act itself. In my opinion, the penalty provided at the end of the form would be in addition to any action that may be taken under the Essential Supplies Act against the offender.

10. It was also contended by the learned counsel for the petitioner that even if it be held that a return regarding con sumption would be a return regarding stocks of coal held by the petitioner, still no false return had been submitted. The case of the petitioner is that "consumption" would include all possible ways of depleting the stocks held by him, and they may be by actual burning of the coal in the furnaces of the mill, by sale or by loan to other persons. Learned counsel for the State submitted that "consumption" did not include sale and that it included only the actual burning of the coal in the factory. He, however, failed to support his submission by reference to any law or even the dictionary. As a matter of fact, the relevant meaning of the word "consumption" given in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Third Edition, is "the action or fact of consuming by use, waste, etc." The relevant meaning of the word "consume" given in the same dictionary at page 379 is "to make away with." If `making away with' is synonymous with `consumption', as it clearly is, it cannot be said that coal when loaned or sold to somebody else is not being consumed.

11. There is no doubt about the fact that while construing penal laws the rule of strict construction has to be followed. A reference to page 265 of "Maxwell on the Interpretation of Statutes" Tenth Edition, would show that:- "Perhaps the same spirit may be found in the decisions that a Court was not bound to know that a colt was a horse in an Act against horse‑stealing, or that a pig was a `hog' in an Act against hog‑stealing, and that an enactment which made it a felony to `stab, cut or wound' did not reach the case of biting off a nose or a finger, because the injury thus inflicted was not caused by an instrument, nor that of breaking a collar bone, when the skin was not also broken." Keeping this in view, I would not be prepared to give a restricted meaning to the word "consumption" when a wider one is lawfully possible.

12. I would, therefore, hold that sale or loan of coal also would be covered by the term "consumption" and if the petitioner has included the stocks made away by him in this manner in the figures shown in the third column of the form, he has not transgressed the law. I would accordingly accept all the five petitions (Criminal Revisions Nos. 56, 118, 119, 120 and 121 of 1962), set aside the order of the District Magistrate and maintain the order of discharge of the petitioner by the learned Resident Magistrate in all the five cases. K. B. A./A. H. Petitions accepted.