GANGA SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Ganga Singh, the applicant in this criminal revision, has been convicted by the Fourth Assistant Sessions Judge of Agra for an offence under Section 218 I. P. C. and has been sentenced to three years' R. I, His conviction and sentence were confirmed in appeal by the Sessions Judge of Agra.

(2.) The prosecution allegations were that the accused-applicant, while working as Secretary of the Gaon Sabha of Semra, made a false entry in the birth and death register of the Gram Sabha in question in respect of the death of one 'Lekhraj Singh. According to the prosecution Lekraj Singh actually died on 8-1-1957, but the accused Ganga Singh made a false entry in the register, purporting to have been made on 30-10-1956, showing the date of Lekhraj Singh's death as 30-9-1956. Litigation was going on at the time between Lekhraj Singh and Deshraj Singh over the partition of certain agricultural plots. The suit was decreed in favour of Lekhraj Singh on 3-1-1957, five days before he died; but Deshraj Singh, it is alleged, induced the applicant Ganga Singh to make the aforesaid false entry in the birth and death register, So as to afford a basis for arguing that the suit had abated on account of the failure to bring on the record the heirs of Lekraj Singh within 90 days of his death, An application to this effect was moved by Deshraj Singh in the course of the appeal which he filed in the court of the Additional Commissioner against the decree; and in support of this allegation relied upon the false entry that had been made by Ganga Singh.

(3.) The material on record is amply sufficient to prove that Lekhraj Singh actually died in January 1957 and that the entry made by the accused-applicant in the birth and death register showing him to have died on 30-9-1956 was false; and I can sea no reason to go behind the findings of fact arrived at by the courts below. Learned counsel for the accused-applicant, however, argues that even if the facts are taken as proved, the conviction is not legally sustainable because the crime committed by the accused was essentially the offence of fabricating false evidence for the purpose of being used in a judicial proceeding, punishable under Section 193 I. P. C., and by virtue of Section 195(c) Cr. P. C. could not be taken cognizance of without the complaint in writing of the Additional Commissioner of Agra, who heard the appeal for the purpose of which the false evidence in question was fabricated.