SHESH NARAIN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ONE Harihar Dutt Tiwari was charged for having committed forgery in court's records and applicant Shesh Narain and his wife Smt. Rajeshwari Devi were charged for having abetted the commission of the aforesaid forgeries. The learned Sessions Judge acquitted Harihar Dutt Tiwari and Smt. Rajeshwari Devi but convicted the applicant for the offences Under Sections 465 and 466 of the Indian Penal Code both read with Section 109, IPC and sentenced him to one year's rigorous imprisonment and to three years' rigorous imprisonment respectively on those counts. The two sentences were directed to run concurrently.

(2.) ON appeal, the learned Sessions Judge, Jaunpur confirmed the conviction and sentences of the applicant; hence this revision.

(3.) THE prosecution case in brief is as follows: One Sheomurat had obtained a money decree against the applicant. In its execution, certain bhumidhari plots of the applicant were put on sale. Applicant's wife Smt. Rajeshwari Devi purchased them at the auction. On 18-5-1962, an application Ex. Ka 20 was filed on behalf of Smt. Rajeshwari Devi for preparation of sale certificate. On 1-11-1962 another application Ex. Ka-19 was filed on her behalf for the delivery of possession and Dakhalnama. These two applications contained not only the plots which had been purchased by Smt. Rajeshwari Devi at the auction sale but also certain other plots, which had originally belonged to the applicant but had been sold by him long before the date of the auction sale to certain other persons. It was alleged by the prosecution that when the vendees of those plots, as usual, went to cultivate them, applicant and his wife restrained them from ploughing the fields on the assertion that those plots have been purchased by Smt. Rajeshwari Devi at the auction sale. The vendees then went to the Court and got the file of Execution Case No. 19 of 1959 inspected by their counsel and discovered that the plots which they had purchased from Shesh Narain applicant had also been interpolated in the warrant of attachment, warrant of sale and other connected papers. They filed an application in the Court of Civil Judge for deleting the said plots from the aforesaid documents, on which a notice was issued to the applicant and his wife but they neither appeared nor contested the said application. The Civil Judge after holding an inquiry came to a conclusion that the interpolations had been made in the said papers and accordingly sent a report to the police to register a case. Subsequently, a case was registered and investigated and applicant, his wife Smt. Rajeshwari Devi and Harihar Dutt Tiwari, a clerk of a local lawyer were sent for trial.