Cap. 449 Art. 48Accusedmayplead warranty.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this article, in any proceedings for an offence against this Act or any regulations made thereunder, being an offence consisting of selling, or offering, exposing or advertising for sale, or having in one’s possession for the purpose of sale, any article or substance, it shall be a defence for the accused to prove that -

(a) he purchased it as being an article or substance which could lawfully be sold or otherwise dealt with as aforesaid, or, as the case may be, could lawfully be so sold or dealt with under the name or description or for the purposes under or for which he sold or dealt with it, and with a written warranty to that effect;

(b) that he had no reason to believe, at the time of the commission of the alleged offence, that it was otherwise; and

(c) it was, at the time of the commission of the alleged offence, in the same state as when he purchased it.

(2) Where the accused in any such proceedings is an employee or an agent of the person who purchased the article or substance under a warranty, he shall be entitled to rely on the provisions of this article in the same way as his employer or principal would have been entitled to do if he had been the accused.

(3) Where the accused in any such proceedings has been acquitted under the foregoing provisions of this article, new proceedings may be taken against the person by whom the warranty relied on by the accused in the original proceedings is alleged to have been given.

(4) For the purposes of this article and article 49, a name or description entered in an invoice shall be deemed to be a written warranty that the article or substance to which the entry refers can be sold or otherwise dealt with under that name or description.