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Judgment
Sushil Kukreja, J
The present criminal revision petition has been filed by the petitioner under Section 397, read with Section 401 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for setting aside order dated 30.05.2023, passed by the Court of learned Judicial Magistrate First Class, Kandaghat, District Solan, H.P. in Case No. 10/2 of 2019.
Brief facts of the case are that FIR No. 70/18, dated 05.09.2018 was registered against the petitioner at Police Station Kandaghat, District Solan, H.P., under Sections 279 & 337 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 187 of the Motor Vehicles Act. Thereafter, the charge sheet was filed against the petitioner and he was put to trial. After leading the evidence by the prosecution, the matter was fixed for arguments on 30.05.2023. At the time of the arguments, it was noticed that in the charge sheet, the registration number of the vehicle involved in the accident was wrongly written as HP-01M- 0243 instead of HP-01N-0243 and after taking cognizance of the fact, the learned trial Court exercised its powers under Section 216 of Cr. PC and altered the charge by taking resort to Section 216 of Cr. PC. However, the prayer of the learned counsel for the accused to re-examine the prosecution witnesses was disallowed by the Court.
I have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner, learned Additional Advocate General for the respondent-State and also gone through the material available on record.
Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner will be satisfied in case only Investigating Officer, i.e. PW-6 Umesh Pal, is allowed to be re-cross-examined.
Therefore, without adverting to the merits of the case and keeping in view the concept of fair trial, this Court finds it in the interest of justice to permit the petitioner/accused to re-cross-examine Investigating Officer, i.e. PW-6 Umesh Pal.
Hence, the petition is allowed and impugned order dated 30.05.2023, passed by the Court of learned Judicial Magistrate First Class, Kandaghat, District Solan, H.P. in Case No. 10/2 of 2019, is modified to the extent that Investigating Officer, i.e. PW-6 Umesh Pal, is permitted to be re-cross-examined by the petitioner/accused in accordance with law.
The petition is disposed of in the aforesaid terms, so also pending application(s), if any.