BUDHU RAM Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by special leave against the judgment of the Rajasthan High Court. The appellant is a displaced person from West Pakistan. He obtained a registration card meant for displaced persons from the Rehabilitation Department in July 1949. In 1954, the Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act, (No. 44 of 1954) was enacted. Thereafter a notification was issued by the Central Government under the Act requiring displaced persons having verified claims to make applications for payment of compensation. Thereupon the appellant made an application for compensation (Ex. P-2) to the Assistant Settlement Officer, Alwar in March 1955, as required under the Act and the Rules framed thereunder. In support of that application, he submitted an attested copy of his verified claim (Ex. P-3). It appears that the Assistant Settlement Officer proposed to allot 132 acres of evacuee allotable agricultural land to the appellant on quasi-permanent basis, and asked the Tehsildar Nagar to make a proposal in that connection in consultation with the appellant. In the meantime, secret information was received that displaced persons in that area had obtained allotment of land on false and forged verified claims. The matter was then inquired into and it was found that the claim for compensation made by the appellant was based on a fabricated verified claim. Consequently, the appellant was prosecuted under ss. 466, 471 and 420 read with s. 511 of the Penal Code and was committed for trial to the Court of Session, Alwar.

(2.) It may be mentioned that the original of which Ex. P-3 is a copy submitted along with the application (Ex. P-2) was never produced either before the Assistant Settlement Officer or in the Sessions Court. The case was tried by the Assistant Sessions Judge to whom it was transferred. The appellants defence there was that the application (Ex. P-2) had not been submitted by him and that he had nothing to do with the said application or the enclosures accompanying it. He also contended that as the Assistant Settlement Officer, was acting as a court and as the offence under s. 471 was alleged to have been committed in respect of a document produced or given in evidence in proceedings before the Assistant Settlement Officer, his prosecution was incompetent in the absence of a complaint by the Assistant Settlement Officer. The Assistant Sessions Judge rejected the contention of the appellant that any complaint by the Assistant Settlement Officer was necessary before cognizance could be taken of the offence under s. 471 of the Penal Code. He further held on the evidence led by the prosecution that the application (Ex. P-2) and the copy of the verified claim (Ex. P-3) and other papers accompanying the application were got prepared by the appellant and got attested and verified by him. He further held that though there was no direct proof of the fact that the application (Ex. P-2) was put in by the appellant in the office of the Assistant Settlement Officer, Alwar, there could be no doubt in the circumstances of the case that the application (Ex. P-2) along with its enclosures could only have been put in by the appellant or by someone on his behalf in the office of the Assistant Settlement Officer. He, therefore, convicted the appellant under s. 471 as well as under s. 420 read with s. 511 of the Penal Code and sentenced him to imprisonment as well as fine. There was then an appeal by the appellant to the Sessions Judge, Alwar. This appeal was dismissed with the modification that the sentence of fine was set aside. The substantive sentence of imprisonment, which was two years rigorous imprisonment under s. 471 and one years rigorous imprisonment under s. 420 read with s. 511 of the Penal Code, has been made to run concurrently by both the courts.

(3.) The appellant then went in revision to the High Court and the main point urged there was that the prosecution was incompetent in view of s. 195(1)(c) of the Code of Criminal Procedure in the absence of a complaint by the Assistant Settlement Officer, Alwar. The High Court rejected this contention. Further, the findings of the two courts below were challenged on the merits; but the High Court held that there was no reason to interfere with the concurrent findings of fact arrived at by the two courts below. Finally, it was contended that as Ex. P-3 was only a copy there could be no offence under s. 471, but this contention was also rejected by the High Court. In the result, the High Court confirmed the judgment of the Sessions Judge. There was then an application for a certificate to appeal to this Court, which was rejected. The appellant then came to this Court for special leave, which was granted; and that is how the matter has come up before us.