P S RAMASWAMI NADAR Vs. R VISWANATHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a revision by the complainant against the order of the Seventh Presidency Magistrate in C. C, No. 3971 of 1956 on his file. A complaint was filed against the two respondents herein for an offence under Section 420 and Section 420 read with Section 109, I. P. C. Under Section 200, Cr. P. C. as amended, a Magistrate taking cognizance of an offence on complaint shall at once examine the complainant and the witnesses present, if any, upon oath, and the substance of the examination shall be reduced to writing and shall be signed by the complainant and the witnesses and also by the Magistrate. Then the provisos follow.

(2.) BUT these provisos have no bearing on this case. Under Section 203 which relates to the dismissal of complaints, the Magistrate before whom a complaint is made or to whom it has been transferred may dismiss the complaint if, after considering the statement on oath (if any) of the complainant and the witnesses and the result of the investigation or enquiry, if any, under Section 202, there is in his judgment no sufficient ground for proceedings. The learned Counsel who appeared for the petitioner herein contends that the provisions of Section 200 and Section 203 have not been complied with, that is, that he was present with the witnesses at the time when he presented the complaint, that the witnesses were not examined on oath and that the substance of their examination has not been reduced to writing by the Magistrate.

(3.) BUT he fairly concedes that he did not present the complaint himself before the lower Court and he stated that Mr. A. Nagarajan was the advocate who appeared for the complainant in the lower Court. Mr. A. Nagarajan is now present in Court and I asked him whether the witnesses were present when he presented the complaint. He says that among the witnesses mentioned in the complaint, C. K. Ramachandran and P. S. Narayanan (Nos. 1 and 4) were present in Court.