PARBHUBHAI PARAGJI Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner in this application is one Parbhubhai Paragji. who is an accused person in Criminal Case No. 513 of 1954 pending in the Court of the Judicial 1st Class Magistrate Navsari. It is prayed by the petitioner that the proceedings pending against him in the criminal case be quashed and that he be ordered to be discharged. It may be noted that a similar request made by him before the learned Sessions Judge, Surat, was rejected by the learned Sessions Judge.

(2.) IT would appear that the learned Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class, Navsari, was 'prima facie' satisfied that his Court has jurisdiction to try the accused upon a charge under Section 409, I. P. C. Mr. Rajani Patel, who appears for the petitioner, has raised a point that the learned Magistrate's Court had no jurisdiction to try the accused, because the entrustment had taken place In. New Zealand.

(3.) NOW if we turn to the charge against the petitioner, the charge leads that the petitioner was entrusted by one Parbhubhai Gonsai-bhai with a sum of ?1550/- at Wellington, New Zealand, and the entrustment was made for the purpose that the above-mentioned amount or its equivalent in Indian currency be paid to one Govanbhai Madhabhai at Kachhiwadi, a village situated in Taluk Navsari. The charge further alleged that the petitioner upon reaching Sarporepardi dishonestly misappropriated or converted to his own use the abovementloned amount of ? 1550/- or dishonestly used it or disposed it of in violation of the directions of law prescribing the mode in which such trust was to be discharged.