SYED QAMARALI Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS second appeal has been filed by the plaintiff, who lost in both the courts below. His appeal before the District Judge was dismissed summarily without notice to the respondent. It is directed against the order of Sri C. B. Kekre, District Judge, Chhindwara, arising out of the judgment and decree passed by Sri S. M. I. Alvi, Civil Judge, Class I, Balaghat.

(2.) THE plaintiff-appellant was a sub-inspector of police at Tendu Kheda in charge of the police station house. He, along with some others, had been prosecuted for offences under Sections 304, 331 and 201, Indian Penal Code in the Court of Sri J. N. Dutta, Magistrate, First Class, with powers under Section 30, Criminal Procedure Code, who by judgment dated 7 July 1944 acquitted all the accused honourably in criminal case No. 54 of 1944. The matter was not taken up further by the prosecution against the said acquittal. The prosecution version was that the sub-inspector had been to the house of one Gokal to carry on investigation in connexion with a theft alleged to have been committed by the deceased Mozi. The charge in the said criminal case was that on the night of 7 February 1944, the deceased Mozi was treated by third-degree methods as a result of which two of his ribs were fractured and his spleen was ruptured and the death was said to have been caused on account of the beating alleged to have been administered by the sub-inspector. The Magistrate, while acquitting the accused under Section 258 (1 ). Criminal Procedure Code, held that there was no beating in the house of Gokal on the night of 7 February 1944, and that after the interrogation, the deceased Mozi went back to his house alive, where his mother, wife and daughter met him some time in the midnight. The Magistrate also found that there were no injury marks on the body of the deceased, but two of his ribs had been fractured and his spleen bad also been ruptured. Considering all the evidence, the Magistrate acquitted honourably all the accused, holding that the prosecution version was wholly incorrect.

(3.) THE present suit was filed for a declaration to the effect that the order, dated 22 December 1945, passed by the Inspector-General of Police was void, as the authorities had contravened Regulation 241 of the Police Regulations, inasmuch as they had, in the departmental inquiry, held him guilty of the alleged charge of committing culpable homicide with respect to the deceased Mozi. The plaintiff averred that the departmental authorities had no right to sit in judgment over the decision of the criminal Court, and therefore, the order of dismissal was wholly without jurisdiction. The plaintiff claimed Rs. 4,724-6-0 as arrears of salary and paid court-fees on the consequential relief without paying any court-fees on the declaration. In the body of the plaint, the order of dismissal was specifically challenged, though in the relief clause the plaintiff claimed a decree for Rs. 4,724-5-0 only for arrears from 1 April 1947 to 1 April 1951.