VIJATA PHARASI Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Challenge herein is to the judgment and order dated 4.7.2011 rendered by the Additional Sessions Judge, Dehradun in Criminal Appeal No. 7/2010 titled as Smt. Vimla Pharasi v. Km. Vijata Pharasi.

(2.) To understand the controversy between the parties, it is worth mentioning that Km. Vijata Pharasi (daughter) launched a complaint against her own mother Smt. Vimla Devi Pharasi on 17.5.2002 to get her punished for the offence of Section 406 IPC. The gist of the impugned complaint was that father of complainant late Budhi Prakash Pharasi was a Freedom Fighter. He used to receive pension from the Government to his credit on being a Freedom Fighter. He died on 10.9.1999, and before almost two months of his death, he executed an unregistered Will dated 7.7.1999, whereby he distributed his all huge immovable and movable properties among his widow, two sons and two daughters. By way of one of the clause of the said Will, he bequeathed his said pension to be distributed equally among his widow and two daughters. After the death of Budhi Prakash Pharasi, the accused Smt. Vimala Devi Pharasi, the widow of the deceased, got accumulated the pension in December 2001 and thereafter too she is receiving the same regularly from the treasury of the Government. But in utter defiance of the Will of Budhi Prakash Pharasi, she has not given a single penny either to the complainant Km. Vijata Pharasi or her other sister Vinita Pharasi. So, after sending notice demanding her share in the pension, she instituted a complaint under Section 406 IPC.

(3.) That complaint was adjudicated by the learned Magistrate on 4.2.2010, whereby the accused was found guilty for the offence of Section 406 IPC and a sentence of simple one year was awarded to her. Judgment of conviction and sentence was challenged by way of filing the aforementioned appeal, wherein the said judgment was overturned. So, this appeal has been preferred under Section 378(4) of the CrPC before this Court.