ANANTRAY LALJI PANDYA Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant Anantray Lalji Pandya was the accused in Special Criminal Case No. 1 of 1979 in the Court of the learned Special Judge Rajkot District Rajkot. He stood charged for the offence punishable under sec. 161 of the Indian Penal Code and sec. 5(2) read with sec. 5(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947 and was also charged under sec. 465 of the Indian Penal Code. ... ... ... ... ... ... ..

(2.) The Prosecution case briefly stated is as under: The accused was serving as a Revenue Circle Inspector in the Office of Mamlatdar at Jetpur at the relevant time (December 19/01/1979 and his duties as a Circle Inspector inter alia were to prepare a Rojkam alias a Panchnama of the property for the purpose of issuing solvency certificate.

(3.) Complainant Shri Vrajlal Nathabhai Ranpuria is a Diploma-holder in Mechanical Engineering and was doing his business in electrical goods at Virpur and the complainant was also keeping electrical contracts of Gujarat Electricity Board. In the course of his business he had filled in a tender for the installation of electric poles and lines at Lakhapadar Village in Amreli District. It was found that the tender of the complainant was the lowest and was approved by the Executive Engineer Gujarat Electricity Board. However before the contract could be finalised the complainant was required to produce a solvency certificate. It is the further prosecution case that complainant took his father to the Office of Mamlatdar Jetpur on 29-12-1978 for the purpose of issuance of a solvency certificate as the property stood in the name of his father. An Application was submitted to the Deputy Mamlatdar Jetpur on 29-12-1978 for issuance of a solvency certificate to the tune of Rs. 80 0 as against the property worth Rs. 2 lacs. The same application is at Exh. 14 on the record of the case. Complainant and his father approached the Deputy Mamlatdar one Mr. Mevada and complainant got his father signed an affidavit to be annexed with the application. The application and the affidavit were submitted to the Deputy Mamlatdar and the Deputy Mamlatdar told them that they should go to his office after three days.