were produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate's Court only on 28.01.2004 which is four days after the alleged date of occurrence. There is absolutely no explanation for this delay. This Court has held in the decisions of this Court in Ravi v. State of Kerala [2018 (5) KHC 352] , that in the absence of an explanation for the delay, even one day's delay is fatal and would lead to an inference that the sample taken from the 'thondy' articles had not reached the chemical examiner in a tamper proof condition. The same view has been taken by this Court in Ramankutty v. Excise Inspector [2013 (3) KHC 308] and Balachandran v. State of Kerala [2020 (3) KHC 697] and in several other decisions. Apart from the aspect of delay in production of the Thondy articles, it is seen that the forwarding note which has been marked as Ext.P6 in the case is seen signed by the Excise Inspector, Kuttippuram on 25.01.2004. However, it is seen that the Judicial First Class Magistrate, Tirur has counter signed the document only on 23.02.2004, almost one month thereafter, and the sample had been dispatched only on 23.03.2004. There is absolutely no explanation for this delay in sending the sample for chemical examination. In the above circumstances, I find that the
