STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA LTD Vs. HARBHAJAN SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a revision against the order dated 13-10-1995 passed by Sri Chaturbhuj, the then 1st Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ghaziabad in Criminal Complaint No. 2263 of 1995, Steel Authority of India v. Harbhajan Singh insofar as it refused to summon the present Opp. Parties 1 to 5 and dropped the proceedings against them.

(2.) I have heard the counsel for the parties and have also gone through the record.

(3.) The revisionist Steel Authority of India Ltd. filed Criminal Complaint No. 2263 of 1995 before the A.C.J.M. Ghaziabad against Har Bhajan Singh, Deepak Singh, Mohinder Singh, S. K. Bansal, S. K. Agrawal, Narendra Agrawal and Atma Steels Ltd., a Company registered under the Companies Act under Section 138 read with Section 142 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1985 alleging that it supplied steel material to the said Company worth Rs. 16,68,71,100.00, that against it only a sum of Rs. 12,95,00,297.00, had been paid and that despite repeated request and reminders accused No. 7 did not arrange the payment of the balance amount of Rs. 3,73,69,003.00 only to it (the complainant), that the accused No. 7 through other accused persons (to) honour the commitment to pay the balance amount the complainant was instructed to present the cheque No. 412256 dated 1-3-1995 for Rs. 3,87,08,687.00 to the Bank of Baroda, Gandhi Nagar Branch, through complainant's Banker State Bank of India, but the said cheque was returned unpaid by the Banker of the Accused vide memo dated 24-7-1995 with the remarks "payment stopped by drawer", that it (the complainant) consequently served legal notices on the accused persons on 27-7-1995 respectively by registered post calling upon all of them to make payment of the aforesaid amount within 15 days as permissible under law from the date of receipt of the said notice, that the said notices were received by all the accused on 31-7-1995 but all of them have failed to respond to any of the notices within the said statutory period of 15 days of the receipt of the same. It was alleged in the complaint that the accused No. 1 is the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of M/s. Atma Steels Ltd. having its registered office at C-138-142 Industrial Area No. 1 Bulandshahar Road, P. S. Kavinagar, the accused No. 2 is the Executive Director of accused No. 7, accused No. 3 is the General Manager of accused No. 7, accused No. 4 is the Deputy General Manager (Finance) of the accused No. 7, accused No. 5 is the authorised signatory on behalf of accused No. 7 and accused No. 6 is the purchase officer of the accused No. 7, all the accused persons 1 to 6, mentioned above were the persons incharge of and responsible to Company i.e. accused No. 7 for the conduct of the business of the Company at the time when the offence was committed. Accused Nos. 1 and 2 are particularly responsible for the conduct of the affairs of the business and management of the company in their capacity as Chairman-cum-Managing Director and Executive Director of the Company, that accused No. 7 entered into a memorandum of understanding with the complainant on 2-2-1995, though accused Nos. 1 and 2 for the purpose of purchasing iron and steel materials on interest free credit basis for a particular period and also agreed to pay interest @ 18/19% for any such credit beyond the said credit period, that the accused Nos. 1 and 2 induced the complainant by executing the personal guarantee Bond on 1st April, 1994 havingng agreed to pay for the goods supplied on credits in case of default of the accused No. 7. They also furnished a post dated cheque by accused Nos. 4 and 5 for meeting the outstanding balance arising out of the materials transacted to be sold and delivered.