Police report material can support cognizance under the Essential Commodities Act when it discloses the offence sufficiently.

For cognizance of an offence under the Essential Commodities Act on a police report, the magistrate is not confined to the bare report alone. The report may be read with the accompanying documents and witness statements forwarded under Section 173(5) of the Code, and that combined material can be considered to see whether it discloses the offence and satisfies Section 11 of the Act. A police report need only contain sufficient particulars to show the contravention and provide a basis for cognizance under Section 190(1)(b). On the stated facts, the report and connected materials disclosed the offence and met the statutory requirement.

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Issues: Whether, for taking cognizance of an offence under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 on a police report, the court is confined only to the bare police report or may also look at the accompanying materials and earlier complaint or information to see whether the report discloses the offence and satisfies Section 11 of the Act.

Analysis: Section 11 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 requires a written report of the facts constituting the offence by a public servant. After the insertion of Section 10-A, offences under the Act are cognizable, and a police officer investigating such an offence submits a report under Section 173(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. The report must be read with the accompanying documents and witness statements forwarded under Section 173(5), because the statutory scheme treats the whole bundle as the material placed before the magistrate. The report need not set out evidence in detail; it is enough if it contains sufficient particulars to disclose the contravention and furnish a basis for cognizance under Section 190(1)(b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. On the facts, the police report disclosed the offence under Section 7 of the Act and complied with the statutory requirement. The earlier complaint and connected materials could also be looked at for that limited purpose.

Conclusion: The court was not confined to the bare police report, and the police report with its accompaniments sufficiently disclosed the offence and satisfied Section 11 of the Act.

Ratio Decidendi: For cognizance under Section 190(1)(b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, a police report in a cognizable offence under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 may be read with the documents and statements forwarded under Section 173(5), and if that material discloses the offence in sufficient particulars, the requirement of Section 11 is satisfied.

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