D.P. Wadhwa JUDGMENT
D.P. Wadhwa, J.
1. Leave granted.
2. The appellants are aggrieved by the judgment dated September 23, 1996 of the Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad (Lucknow Bench) dismissing their writ petition filed under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution. The appellants sought quashing of the complaint filed against them under Section 7 read with Section 16 of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 (for short 'the Act'). The prayers in the writ petition were worded as under :
"(a) issue a writ of prohibition or a writ, order or direction in the nature of prohibition, prohibiting the Opposite Party Number-1 to proceed with case No. 699 of 1994 (Anurag Narain v. Nitin Sachdeva and Ors.)',
(b) issue a writ of certiorari or a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing the proceedings in Case No. 699 of 1994 together with the consequential order dated 9.5.1994 and the complaint dated 6.5.1993 in so far as it pertains to the petitioners;
(c) issue a writ of mandamus or a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the opposite Party Number-1 not to proceed with the Case No, 699 of 1994 during the pendency of the aforesaid writ petition;
(d) issue any other appropriate writ, order or direction which this Hon'ble Court may deem just and necessary in the circumstances of the case may also be passed: and
(e) to allow the writ petition with costs.
3. There are two appellants, second appellant is the Managing Director of first appellant. The respondents are three. First respondent is the court where the appellants alongwith others have been summoned for having committed offences under Sections 7/16 of the Act. The second respondent is the complainant and the third respondent is the State of Uttar Pradesh.
4. The allegation in the complaint is that complainant was sold a bottle of beverage under the brand "Lehar Pepsi" which was adulterated. The bottle was purchased by the complainant on September 13, 1993. He filed the complaint on May 6. 1994. After recording preliminary evidence the Magistrate passed orders summoning the appellants and others on May 9, 1994. It appears that when the summons reached the appellants they immediately approached the High Court seeking aforesaid reliefs. The High Court, however, refused to entertain the writ petition on the ground that the appellants should approach the 1st respondent for their discharge under Section 245 of the CrPC (for short 'the Code'), if the complaint did not disclose commission of any offence by the appellants and the Court considered the charge to be groundless. The High Court did not approve of the appellants approaching it under writ jurisdiction when sufficient remedy was available under the Code. The High Court was also of the opinion that it could not be said at that stage that the allegations ........