STATE OF U P Vs. HEM RAJ VERMA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY the Court. -Heard learned A.G.A. for the State.

(2.) THESE respondents belong to a Fire Fighting Department, Varanasi. A sum of Rs. 100/ -is involved in the incident. The allegation is that the actual payment made to P.W. 2 was Rs. 45/ -and by making interpolations in the receipt and the quotation a sum of Rs. 100/ -was drawn in addition to Rs. 45/ -. Thus Rs. 100/ -was embezzled or misappropriated by these accused respondents. The luxury of litigation that is evident from the prosecution of the respondents is not at all acceptable to the Court. The acquittal in a trial which started in 1997 for an offence that was committed in 1981 and continued to be pursued here in this Court until now is a glaring example of the State's luxurious style of function. The acquittal order is a lengthy order which had dealt with most of the aspects of the case. The respondents have sufficiently been persecuted by the State for that demeanor up to this date. Admission of this Government appeal by this Court now would amount to draw pound of flesh from the respondents. Compassion is an integral part of criminal jurisprudence of sentencing. Equity and natural justice cannot be throttled similarly because the offence of misappropriation of Rs. 100/ -was committed by the respondents. It would have been in the interest of the State itself that the respondents would have been asked to remit the amount so drawn by them in excess. An entry in their service record would have been sufficient but as earlier said the mode exhibited by the State is not prosecution but persecution of the respondents. The belligerence of the State is apparent in prosecuting such trivial offences by excluding Section 95 I.P.C. It is a trivial offence and should not have been drawn to the Court, as discussed by us in the previous lines. An entry in their service record would have been sufficient to desist the accused persons from adhering to the said course any further in future. A vigil further on their conduct in future might have improved them in their integrity. It is better always to adopt to a reformative course to set things right at the very threshold than adoption of a retributive measure.