Essential Commodities Act, 1955

10C. Presumption of Culpable Mental State.

(1) In any prosecution for any offence under this Act which requires a culpable mental state on the part of the accused, the Court shall presume the existence of such mental state but it shall be a defense for the accused to prove the fact that he had no such mental state with respect to the act charged as an offence in that prosecution.

Explanation : In this section, "culpable mental state" includes intention, motive, knowledge of a fact and the belief in, or reason to believe, a fact.

(2) For the purposes of this section, a fact is said to the proved only when the Court believes it to exist beyond reasonable doubt and not merely when its existence is established by a preponderance of probability. 67 ]