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2006 DIGILAW 812 (JHR)

Ajoy Kumar Ghose v. State of Jharkhand

2006-07-07

AMARESHWAR SAHAY

body2006
Order Heard the parties. 2. The prayer of the petitioner in this writ application is for quashing of Annexure4, which is the order dated 11.7.2005, whereby the prayer of the petitioner for discharge was refused by the trial court. The further prayer of the petitioner is to quash the charges, framed against him under Sections 177, 181/182, 192, .196, 199, 209, 466, 468, 471 and 474 of the Indian Penal Code. 3. The relevant facts which are necessary to be noticed for this application are that one Mr. M.S. Chhabra, an Assistant Professor of Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, who after a departmental proceeding was retired compulsorily, filed a writ application before this Court being C.W.J.C. No. 678/1992(R) challenging the order of his compulsory retirement. The said writ application was finally disposed of by a Division Bench vide judgment dated 5.4.1994, against which Mr. M.S. Chhabra preferred S.L.P. (Civil) before the Supreme Court, which was dismissed by order dated 7.2.1995 but the Supreme Court after noticing the submissions of the petitioner that a forged and fabricated document was used as Annexure in the counter affidavit before the High Court, directed the High Court to take action under Section 340 Cr.P.C. The order of the Supreme Court is quoted hereinbelow:- "Mr. A. Sharan learned counsel is discharged from the petition. The petitioner appears in person. The special leave petition is dismissed. It appears that a letter dated 9.6.92 in Hindi was purported to have been written by one Vikas Prasad the Assistant Inspector General of Registration, Patna to Professor M. Ramkrishna Registrar of the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad intimating therein that the amendments made to the rules and regulations were approved by the office of the Inspector General of Registration. In the affidavit filed in the court by one Vikarama Prasad the Assistant Inspector General of Registration in the present proceedings he has stated that no such letter was issued by him and that the letter appears to be forged. It is, however, necessary to clarify that he has not thrown any light in his affidavit as to who was Vikas Prasad who is alleged to have sent a letter in original which was produced before the High Court as annexure to the affidavit of the acting Registrars, in the Writ Proceedings. It is, however, necessary to clarify that he has not thrown any light in his affidavit as to who was Vikas Prasad who is alleged to have sent a letter in original which was produced before the High Court as annexure to the affidavit of the acting Registrars, in the Writ Proceedings. In view of the denial by Vikarama Prasad that any such letter was sent by his office the matter assumes serious proportion and requires inspection. We, therefore, direct the High Court to take action under the provisions of Section 340 of the Criminal Procedure Code with respect to this letter. The letter in question together with the envelope is taken on the file of this Court. The letter and the envelope should be sent by the Registry of this Court in a sealed cover to the High Court of Patna, for taking necessary action." 4. Thereafter the matter was thoroughly enquired into by Patna High Court and disposed of by judgment dated 16.7.1999 (Annexure-6). It is important to quote the relevant extract of the judgment, which is hereinbelow:- "Thus, by that affidavit of Mr. A.N Tripathy dated 13.11.92 the respondent in the writ petition disputed and denied the case of Mr. Chhabra that 11 persons out of a total of 20 who participated in the special meeting on 11.6.92 were legally not the members of the general council and were not entitled to participate in the said proceeding. This stand of the respondent as per the said affidavit dated 13.11.92 was based upon and supported by a certificate, said to have been issued by the Inspector General of Registration, Patna. However, the said certificate was not annexed with the affidavit filed on 13.11.92. Since the said issue was further pressed and persuade by Mr. Chhabra, this court while admitting the writ application on 16.11.92 directed the respondents to file a counter affidavit on the said issue and thereafter the relevant counter affidavit sworn by Mr. M. Ramakrishna, the acting Registrar of the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad was filed on 21.1.93. A perusal of the said affidavit shows that the original para-1 in which name of Mr. A.K. Ghose, the Director of Indian School of Mines appeared as the person swearing the said affidavit was penned through and was replaced by another paragraph1 showing Mr. M. Ramakrishna, the acting Registrar of the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad was filed on 21.1.93. A perusal of the said affidavit shows that the original para-1 in which name of Mr. A.K. Ghose, the Director of Indian School of Mines appeared as the person swearing the said affidavit was penned through and was replaced by another paragraph1 showing Mr. M. Ramakrishna, the person who was authorized to swear that affidavit on behalf of the respondent. Paragraph-6 of the said counter affidavit was also amended by hand with an insertion mentioning the letter in question dated 9.6.92 as a part of annexureA while originally annexure A was confined to a certificate dated 18.6.92 issued from the office of Inspector General of Registration, Patna, to support the stand that all the participants in the special meeting of general council held on 11.6.92 were its valid members in accordance with amended rules duly registered with Inspector General of Registration, Patna." 5. It was held in the aforesaid judgment that the Inspector General of Registration, Patna also got the genuineness of the letter in question dated 9.6.92 enquired departmentally and as per his noting dated 21.2.95 the said letter was found to be a forged and fabricated letter for various reasons some of which have been submitted above by Mr. Chhabra. The various grounds on which this letter has to be held a forged and fabricated one also find mentioned in detail in paragraph-7 of the counter affidavit filed by Mr. Vikarama Prasad in this Court. All these materials, thus, leave no scope but to come to a conclusion that offences referred to in clause (b) of sub-clause (i) of Section 195 appear to have been committed in respect of the letter in question dated 9.6.92 as already held earlier. 6. Accordingly, the Division Bench of Patna High Court directed the Registrar General of the High Court to file a complaint in writing against the petitioner and five others. Pursuant thereto a complaint was filed, which was registered as Official Complaint Case No. 99 of 1999 before the Chief Judicial Magistrate at Ranchi. 7. 6. Accordingly, the Division Bench of Patna High Court directed the Registrar General of the High Court to file a complaint in writing against the petitioner and five others. Pursuant thereto a complaint was filed, which was registered as Official Complaint Case No. 99 of 1999 before the Chief Judicial Magistrate at Ranchi. 7. After the cognizance was taken in the said complaint case, it appears that the petitioner has filed an application for his discharge on the ground that there was no ground at all to frame charge against him and only on the basis of suspicion the charges cannot be framed against him. In support of his submissions, the learned counsel for the petitioner has relied on a decision in the case of Satish Mishra vs. Delhi Administration and Am. reported in (1996)9 SCC 766 . The learned counsel has particularly referred paragraphs-11 and 13 of the said judgment of the Supreme Court. 8. In that very paragraph-11 itself the Supreme Court while noticing the decision in the case of "Union of India vs. Prafulla Kumar Samal reported in (1979)3 SCC page 4" found that in the said judgment the Supreme Court has already been pointed out that the test to determine a prima facie case would depend upon the facts of each case and it is difficul1 to lay down a rule of universal application. 9. The learned counsel for the petitioner has further relied on the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of "State of U.P. through Central Bureau of Investigation vs. Dr. Sanjay Singh and Anr. reported in (1994) Supp. (2) SCC 707" and submitted that mere suspicious of motive is not a sufficient ground for framing charges. 10. In the present case as noticed and discussed above, the Division Bench of Patna High Court by an elaborate judgment, as contained in Annexure-6 to this application, has clearly found on the basis of the evidence on record that the petitioner was well aware of the filing of such counter affidavit in which a forged letter was used before this Court on behalf of the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. 11. In view of this finding of the Division Bench of Patna High Court, by no stretch of imagination it can be said that the allegation against the petitioner was based on merely suspicion. 11. In view of this finding of the Division Bench of Patna High Court, by no stretch of imagination it can be said that the allegation against the petitioner was based on merely suspicion. As a matter of fact the documentary evidence were sufficient to frame charge against the petitioner. Therefore, the submissions of the learned counsel for the petitioner cannot be accepted and, hence, is rejected. 12. Having heard the parties and after going through the impugned order, I find that the learned trial court has not committed any illegality or irregularities in rejecting the prayer for discharge of the petitioner and no case is made out for any interference by this Court. 13. Accordingly, having found no merit, this application is dismissed.