State by Public Prosecutor vs Mangaram Chandramal Mahathani

A.K. Rajan, J.—The criminal appeal has been filed by the State against acquittal.

The accused/respondent herein is charged for having violated some provisions relating to Customs Act somewhere in 1960''s. He cheated the Government of India represented by the Chief Controller of Import and Exports, New Delhi and the Controller of Imports and Exports, Pondicherry, by dishonestly inducing the former to direct the later to issue C.C.Ps. bearing numbers 997077 to 997079, 997103 to 997105, 9 97116 to 122, for a total value of Rs.9,00,511 for the import of Motor Parts, microscope, vaccines etc., in favour of M/s. Chandson Trading Company,

The trial Court after framing charges found the accused guilty for an offence u/s 420 I.P.C. and convicted him with the imprisonment till the rising of the Court and also to pay a fine of Rs.90,000/- , in default to undergo R.I. for three years. The accused/ respondent has preferred an appeal against this order and the appellate Court has acquitted them of all the charges. Against that acquittal by the appellate Court, this appeal has been filed.

Though the appeal was filed as early as 1989, notice was not yet been served on the accused. The reasons are manifold. First of all, the appeal memorandum does not contain the full cause title including address of the respondent/accused. Except the name, no other particulars are found in the cause title. Attempts have been made by this Court to serve notice and all the notice sent through this Court were returned unserved. Therefore, for the past 12 years, notice has not been served on the accused/respondents.

As per the Criminal Rules of Practice, Rule 193, the cause title of every Memorandum of Criminal Appeal shall contain particulars, interalia, the "full cause-title" of the case. The Rule 191, provides that every Original Miscellaneous Petition shall contain, interalia, the names and "full addresses" of the parties. Rule 193 contains the words "full Cause Title" wherein Rule 191 the words used are " Cause-title" and "full addresses". Reading these two Rules together it is clear that every Memorandum of Criminal Appeal shall contain the name and full address of the respondents. Where any Memorandum of Criminal Appeal presented without furnishing the full address is not proper presentation as not in conformity with the Criminal Rules of Practice.

It is to be noted that the learned sessions Judge acquitted these accused on the ground that when there was no joint trial, evidence was recorded in one case and the same was repeatedly typed in other cases also. Therefore, each case is a separate case, and the evidence in each is separate evidence, but the Sessions Judge, found that there are many omissions in the evidence recorded in the first case and retyped in other case; therefore, the learned Judge found that the evidence is not sufficient to find the accused guilty. This finding of the learned Sessions Judge cannot be said to be perverse. Therefore, even if this Court ultimately come to a different conclusion; where two views possible on the basis of evidence on record, the view taken by the first appellate Court cannot be set aside in appeal against acquittal.

Considering the facts of this case and considering the nature of punishment i.e., prior to be set aside, this Court is of the opinion, that no useful purpose will be served by prosecuting this appeal any further. It will only be in the academic interest to decide these issues. Therefore, this Court is of the opinion for the reasons stated above that notice could not be served on the accused/respondent so far and the nature of the sentence that is sought to be restored as stated earlier, this Court feels that there is no merit in the appeal to prosecute further. In these circumstances, the appeal is dismissed. No costs.