KAMALADEVI AGARWAL Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) Aggrieved by the impugned order of the High Court quashing her complaint and the order of the Magistrate issuing the process against the respondents for the offences under Sections 465, 467, 468, 471 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code, the appellant has approached this Court by way of this appeal for setting aside the order of the High Court with direction to the Magistrate for proceeding with the complaint in accordance with law. It is submitted that the High Court of Calcutta has passed the impugned order in exercise of its power under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure completely ignoring the mandate of law as settled by various pronouncements of this Court and other High Courts in the country.

(3.) The complainant claims to be a partner of M/s. Chandmal Gangabishan, a firm registered under the Partnership Act and carrying on business of Bhujia and other allied products with the trade mark HALDIRAM BHUJIAWALA. According to the averments made in the complaint, the partnership business was initially commenced in the year 1956 with four partners, namely, Ganga Bishan Agarwal, Moolchand Agarwal, Rameshwarlal Agarwal and Satidas Agarwal. Rameshwar Aggarwal retired from the firm in the year 1958. The firm was reconstituted by admitting Shri Shivkishan Aggarwal as partner in place of the retiring partner. They started using the brand name HALDIRAM BHUJIAWALA in the year 1965. The appellant was admitted as a partner of the said firm on 31st October, 1969. An application for registration of trademark of HALDIRAM BHUJIAWALA and Logo HRB was filed with the appropriate authority by all the partners on 29th December, 1972. The said application was advertised inviting objections. Opposition proceedings were commenced at the instance of one Madanlal on 12th January, 1976 which was rejected on 16-4-1980 and the trademark was registered on 27th January, 1981 in the name of the firm, of which the appellant was a partner. The appellant alleged that when in the first week of June, 1999 she went to Delhi to attend her ailing son Ashok Kumar Aggarwal, found him to be suffering from serious mental depression on account of serious nervous breakdown. After inquiries and persuasions her son told the appellant in July, 1999 that he had suffered mental shock upon closure of his opened shop in the year 1991 at Delhi by reason of the order of injunction passed by the Court of law. He disclosed that the said injunction had been granted against him on the ground that the partnership of which the appellant was also a partner stood dissolved on 16-11-1974. She informed her son of not having signed any deed of dissolution of the partnership. When Ashok Kumar Aggarwal handed over to the appellant a xerox copy of the deed of dissolution, she was shocked to know that her signatures had been forged. Upon scrutiny it appeared that the signatures, purporting to be of Gangabishan Aggarwal and Moolchand Aggarwal were also not genuine and had been forged besides her signatures. She alleged that Accused Nos. 1 to 4 have brought into existence the self-forged deed of dissolution for their personal gains and to the detriment of the partners of the firm of M/s. Chandmal Gangabishan. She referred to number of circumstances in her complaint to show that the forgery had been committed by the respondent-accused. In para 22 of the complaint, the appellant catalogued a number of instances allegedly showing the forgery by the respondents.