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Turmeric Case: 38 Years of Legal Battle

By Krish Bhatia-

Mr. Prem Chand, 76, from the northern Indian state of Haryana, was the defendant of selling turmeric – consumed by Indians for generations to push physiological state – while not permission in 1982. A 38-year legal battle over the unaccredited sale of turmeric is a fascinating Asian country and raising considerations over its slow judicature, with a staggering four.3 million lawsuits unfinished. The Supreme Court complete the 38-year adventure story of Associate in Nursing alleged turmeric forger, United Nations agency was arrested in 1982 and, eventually, sentenced to a month in jail and a five hundred rupees ($6.70) fine. when a decade, the very best court reversed his conviction; the two lower courts took around fourteen years every to render verdicts. the amount of your time of the turmeric case is extreme however not distinctive among the nearly forty million cases unfinished across the country’s three-tiered judicature. Among cases in twenty-five state high courts, roughly 173,000 are unfinished for over twenty years, and roughly half those for over thirty, government knowledge showed.

A food inspector found a sample of turmeric containing “four living mealworms and a couple of live weevils”. man Chand was arrested however the case didn’t return to court till 1995, once an attempted court initially innocent him. 

 Nearly about a thirty-eight years ago, a food inspector in Haryana picked up a 600-gram sample of turmeric, that staple of Indian cookery, from a store owned by Prem Chand in Sonipat and sent it to a laboratory for analysis, thereby setting in motion a series of events that culminated during a very Supreme Court judgment on thirty July 2020. there is no specific reason why anyone on the far side Prem Chand and variety of bureaucrats in Haryana may even recognize or care concerning the case however it tells a story of a justice system to tame each approach attainable. The system was set in motion once the analyst’s report indicated the presence of “four living mealworms and a couple of live weevils” within the sample from Prem Chand’s store. The prosecution was begun against Prem Chand underneath then interference of Food Adulteration Act (PFA), 1954. 13 years later, in 1995, Prem Chand was finally innocent. however, his troubles weren’t over. The Haryana government thought it was a matching case for charm to the state supreme court and fourteen years later, the geographical area and Haryana state supreme court delivered another shock to Prem Chand, convicting him of the offence of adulteration and also the sale of turmeric powder while not a license – sentencing him to 6 .5 months in jail and a fine of Rs a pair of,500. Naturally, it absolutely was his address charm, now to the Supreme Court.

Just once he thought he had wiggled out of bother, man Chand’s case affected to the geographical area and Haryana state supreme court, that took till 2009 to reverse the earlier ruling and sentenced him to one-month imprisonment and a fine of ₹500 (£5.10). man Chand appealed the selection in India’s highest court and over 10 years later, on July thirty this year, he was innocent everywhere again.

Non-success of the criminal justice system

1. Delays at the High Court – having filed the charm within the state supreme court, the govt. and also the state supreme court each gave the impression to possess forgotten concerning the case for fourteen years. No details of the case seem to be accessible on the geographical area and Haryana HC websites that speak of the state of mechanisation of records and also the standard of data accessible from courts. 

2. Delays at the Supreme Court – it took eleven years for the Supreme Court lose this case with a five page judgement. The case was listed for hearing ninefold however it went a full seven years while not being truly listed within the Supreme Court. what percentage such cases square measure unfinished within the Supreme Court? nobody is conscious of . One hopes that the written record and also the magistrate of Asian country do, however within the absence of any concrete knowledge, one will solely speculate.

3. Mindless appeal – having unsuccessful at statement proof to prove the case against Prem Chand, the Haryana government appears to have determined to need a chance at the state supreme court. whereas it’s forever straightforward to be wiser in savvy, one can’t facilitate however surprise concerning the driving reason behind filing Associate in Nursing charm during a very case thirteen years when the alleged incident of adulteration.

4. Improper chain of custody – once the food inspector collected the sample from Prem Chand’s search and sent it to the analyst, he didn’t retain the dispatch receipts or if he did, didn’t end up them in trial. Nor did the analyst take a glance at the merchandise at the earliest or confirm that they were hold on in safe custody during a very manner that prevented any attainable meddling.

5. Delayed trial – it took 13 years to end an attempt for Associate in Nursing offence that was punishable with a term of vi months to a couple of years in jail. it’s unlikely that this trial concerned business over a handfull of witnesses and taking over record variety of documents – a way that shouldn’t take over daily or two of hearings at the foremost. albeit we tend to assume that it took a year roughly for the procedures underneath the PFA and also the Code of Criminal Procedure to be completed, there’s completely no reason why an easy matter like this need to be compelled to be delayed for therefore long.

Conclusion 

Every authority and every level of the judiciary unsuccessful in doing their duty during a very timely and lawful manner. simply however did a case that needed no over a variety of pages of reasoning to lose at the Supreme Court languish for over thirty years within the judicature might be an issue to mirror on deeply. Prem Chand, currently a 76-year-old man, has had this case hanging over his head for his life. One will solely imagine what anxiety and agony he had suffered and what expenses he had incurred all as a result of those “four living worms and a couple of live weevils”.