C MANI Vs. SALEEM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition under Section 482 of Code of Criminal Procedure to call for the records in C.C. No. 237 of 1986 on the file of the Judicial First Class Magistrate No.2 Madurai and quash the same.

(2.) The case of the petitioners is that they apprehended the respondent in respect of some acts of smuggling on 16-1-1986 and that in order to forestall the subsequent detention or prosecution of the respondent for his offence he has filed this complaint against the customs officers concerned, seven in number. The complaint is for offences under Sections 448, 342, 355, 323, 324 and 506 Part II of the Indian Penal Code.

(3.) The first ground urged by the learned Counsel for the petitioners is that the alleged acts took place upon the apprehension of the complainant on 16-1-1986 and that the complaint was filed only on 6-3-1986 belatedly and therefore, the Magistrate ought not to have taken the complaint on file. This contention is utterly unacceptable. The delay in filing the complaint will have to be explained by the complainant, and the Magistrate, while ascertaining the truth of the case, will take into account the delay. But the lapse of time between 16-1-86 the date of the alleged occurrence and 6-3-1986 the date of complaint, does not make the complaint void.