Emperor vs Balvantrao Anantrao

We think that we ought not to interfere with this acquittal, and that the Magistrate was right in declining to convict the accused u/s 43 (b) of the Bombay Abkari Act V of 1878. The fact was that the accused''s possession of this cocaine was altogether illegal, and, in these circumstances, it seems to us that Section 43 (6) does not apply. That section seems to contemplate rather the case of a person who is in lawful possession of cocaine at one place, but is by law forbidden to remove it either partly or wholly to another place. Here the offence consisted not in moving the cocaine from one place to another, but in the unauthorised possession of it at any place in contravention of the Act. The appeal, therefore, must be dismissed.