BAJRANG LAL Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by special leave is directed against a judgment of the High Court of Rajasthan. It arises out of these facts:

(2.) There is an office of the Works Manager, Northern Railway at Bikaner. Among others, the duty of this office is to issue Railway Passes to the Railway employees and their dependent family members for railway travel. Sita Ram and Ganesh Ram were at the relevant time working as Pass Clerks in the office of the Works Manager. Bajrang Lal and Ram Kishan, though posted as Khalasis in the Railway Carriage Shop, were associated with the work of issuing passes in the office of the Works Manger. The office used to receive applications from Railway employees of the different sections under the Works Manager duly forwarded by the Foreman Incharge of the respective sections for issue of the Railway passes. It was the duty of the office hands to check the correctness of the application and the genuineness of the signatures of the forwarding officers before preparing the passes in the Railway Pass Books maintained by them. After checking, preparing and initialling the passes they were put to the Works Manager. If the passes were meant for a local line, they were put to the Chief Clerk of the works Manager's office for signature. Thereafter, it was the duty of the clerks to send the passes to the concerned sections with acknowledgment slips, and the Foreman of the section was expected to pass them on to the applicants concerned.

(3.) According to the prosecution case, during this period from December 23, 1961 and April 11, 1963, Bajrang Lal, Ram Kishan, Sita Ram and Ganesh Ram, all hatched a conspiracy for securing passes on forged applications. The scheme, as unfolded at the trial was that false and forged applications were prepared in collaboration by Bajrang Lal and Ram Kishan with the object of causing wrongful loss to the Railway.