Order.- The petitioners in all these cases have been convicted under section 9 (a) of the Opium Act and sentenced to a fine of Rs. 50, or, in default, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one month by the Additional First Class Magistrate of Mathurai. The case against them was that they had in their shops bottles containing Guru Tiger Pills without licenses. All the petitioners admitted possession of the bottles and the absence of licenses, but said that they did not know that these pills contained any opium, and also put the prosecution to proof that there was really opium in these pills. Curiously enough the prosecution did not send the pills for analysis, and examine a qualified analyst or chemist to speak to the presence of opium in the pills, but examined P.W.1, a prohibition Sub-Inspector, and admittedly not an analyst or expert, to show that the pills contained 5 per cent. opium. How P.W.1 could find it out was not explained, except by his statement that he saw a publication somewhere some months before his evidence that in Guru Tiger Pills there was 5 per cent. opium. That evidence is sheer hearsay and absolutely worthless. Rumours like these and impressions like these are so rampant in this country of rumours and impressions that no Court should pay any attention to them. Nor can we say that these quack pills contain the same ingredients always, like standard pills of well-known chemists. For Courts and convictions scientific proof of a reliable variety regarding the pills relied on by the prosecution is needed. There was no proof here by any expert chemist or analyst that there was any opium contained in the bottles seized from these petitioners; nor was there any proof that the petitioners knew or had reason to believe that these tiger pills contained any opium. Tiger pills, Lion Balm, Karunkurangu Legiyam are all names fancied by drug sellers in India, and none dealing in such medicines as the agents of these sellers will know what their contents are. Though there is no knowledge required for possession of opium, pure and simple, certainly knowledge will have to be proved when it is alleged that some particular medicine or pill contains opium before the man can be convicted criminally, as mens rea, or guilty knowledge, has to be established in such cases. Though there is no knowledge required for possession of opium, pure and simple, certainly knowledge will have to be proved when it is alleged that some particular medicine or pill contains opium before the man can be convicted criminally, as mens rea, or guilty knowledge, has to be established in such cases. As there was no proof in any of these cases that the pills seized contained any opium and that the petitioners were aware of the presence of opium in these pills, I set aside the convictions and sentences of these petitioners and acquit them, and direct the fines, if paid, to be refunded to them. V.S. ----- Petition allowed.