HARIHAR KHARASUDHA PATNAIK Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present Criminal Appeal has been filed by the appellant under Sec. 374 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, challenging the Judgment and Order dtd. 17/11/2009 passed by the learned Special Judge (Vigilance), Jeypore, in G.R. Case No. 28 of 1995(V) corresponding to T.R. No. 81 of 2007. By the impugned judgment, the appellant, along with his co-accused, were convicted under Sec. 13(2) read with Sec. 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, as well as under Ss. 467, 477-A, and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Four persons were convicted by the impugned judgment, all of whom filed separate appeals before this Court assailing conviction and sentence passed against them. However, during pendency of appeals, three of the appellants passed away, resulting in the abatement of their respective appeals. Consequently, only the present appeal remains for adjudication.

(2.) The brief fact of this case is that, on 1/10/1995, the Inspector of Vigilance, Berhampur Squad, submitted the First Information Report (FIR) before the Superintendent of Police, Vigilance, Berhampur. In the FIR it is alleged that a vigilance inquiry had revealed irregularities in the M.E. Common Examination for the year 1994, conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, Cuttack, Orissa, in May 1994. The examination was conducted under the Chairmanship of the concerned Circle Inspector of Schools, with the District Inspector (D.I.) of Schools supervising the evaluation of answer sheets. The answer papers of Jeypore Education District were valued under the supervision of the D.I. of Schools, Umerkote, who later prepared the result sheets. During verification, it was found that in the result sheet of Kabisurya M.E. School, U.K. Power House Colony, 15 students had originally been marked as failed. However, Gananath Joshi, the then D.I. of Schools, issued a handwritten chit to the Headmaster of Kabisurya M.E. School, instructing him to bring the result sheet on 4/7/1994. Upon submission of the result sheet, Joshi, along with other accused persons, manipulated the marks, altering the results by striking off the word "fail" and rewriting "pass" in columns 8 to 17 of the result sheet, thereby illegally declaring 15 students as passed without making any corresponding corrections in their answer papers. Further inquiry established that similar manipulations were made in the result sheets of U.G.M.E. School, Harijan Sahi, Municipal High School No.2, Chandanbada Sahi, and other schools, allowing 38 additional failed students to be declared as passed through falsification of official records. The present appellant happened to be the Headmaster of Municipal High School No.2 at the relevant time. Based on this report, a vigilance case was registered, and during the investigation, the Vigilance Inspector examined witnesses and verified relevant documents, including the manipulated result sheets seized from the concerned schools. Specimen handwriting and signatures of the accused, including the then D.I. of Schools and attached teacher M. Prasad Rao, were collected and sent for handwriting analysis. The expert opinion confirmed the manipulations; therefore, the competent authority accorded sanction to prosecute the accused.

(3.) After completion of the investigation, a charge sheet was submitted against the accused persons. During course of trial, Gananath Joshi, the then D.I. of Schools, passed away, resulting in the abatement of proceedings against him. Consequently, the cases proceeded against the remaining four accused persons and accordingly after the completion of trial, they were convicted by the learned Trial Court and awarded various sentences which are under challenge. Being aggrieved by the aforementioned Judgement and order dtd. 17/11/2009 of learned Special Judge, Vigilance, Jeypore, the appellant has preferred the present appeal.