In Re: Narayanaswami Mudali

Yahya Ali, J.—The petitioner has been convicted of an offence u/s 81(4) of the Defence of India Rules for violating Clause 12 of the

Kerosene Control Order, 1942, which prescribes that no person shall carry on business as a retail dealer unless he has been registered as such

under the Kerosene Control Order by the Collector having jurisdiction over the place where the retail dealer carries on business. A dealer has

been defined in the Control Order itself as a person dealing in the purchase, sale or distribution of kerosene. In the present case the only evidence

is that the petitioner conducted a solitary transaction of sale of one tin of kerosene but that does not constitute him a retailer nor does it constitute

the transaction a business to amount to his carrying on business as retail dealer within the meaning of Clause 12. Carrying on a business always

connotes conducting of more transactions than one by way of trade or commerce and the concept of dealer also has in it implicit the notion that he

carries on transactions of purchase, sale or distribution as a business and both these expressions exclude the idea of a solitary transaction of

purchase or sale constituting either a business or constituting the person making the sale a retail dealer. The petition is allowed and the conviction is

set aside and the fine if paid will be refunded.