SARAL KUMAR Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Saral Kumar proprietor of M/s. Saral Kumar Sita Ram, Northern Railways, Out Agency, Jagadhfi, has moved the present petition under Sec. 482 of the Code Criminal Procedure challenging FIR No. 230 dated 29.7.93 under Sections 420/467/468/471/120-B of the Indian Penal Code, registered with the Police Station, CIA, Jagadhri.

(2.) Briefly, it has been alleged that the petitioner is the proprietor of M/s. Saral Kumar Sita Ram, Northern Railways, Out Agency, Jagadhri for the last more than 20 years and had been working as an agent of the Railway Authorities to took the consignments of the general public and issues R.R. Receipts on behalf of the Northern Railway Authorities, that an agreement was entered into between the Railway Authorities and petitioner on 3.4.1992/1.5.1992 regarding the petitioner working as an agent of the Railways Authorities to book the consignments of the general public. A copy containing gist of the agreement is Annexure P-l and it was executed for the First time on 8.12.1970 and it has now been extended upto 11.3.1996 that as many as 500 to 600 bags are booked daily and the petitioners gets only 5% commission and he acts no more than a kind of post office or in other words sending the goods on behalf of the Railway Authorities through the Railway Department itself from one place to another that the FIR in question has been registered on 29.7.93 with regard to evasion of sales tax that the petitioner is simply to get the forwarding note filled in accordance with the Indian Railway Commercial Manual Volume II (Chapter XIV) relating to booking of goods traffic under Sr. No. 1402; that the allegation of Excise and Taxation Department that the petitioner has colluded with the dealers in evading the sales tax is baseless and frivolous; that the petitioner even challenged Sections 37 and 38 of the Haryana General Sales Tax Act, 1973 which were introduced by the Haryana General Sales Tax (Ilnd Amendment and Validation Act) 1983 by means of CWP No. 2674 of 1983 which is still pending for its final adjudication; that the sales tax authorities moved Civil Misc No. 686 of 1984 requiring the petitioner to furnish full information to the Excise and Taxation Officer, Jagadhri regarding the names and addresses of the consignors and consignees and details of goods booked to the satisfaction of the sales tax authority but this application has been dismissed by Division Bench of this Court on 29.3.1984 and the copy of the order is Annexure P-3; that under the provisions of Sec. 64 of the Railway Act, 1989, the consignor shall be responsible for the correctness of the particulars furnished by him in the forwarding note; that the petitioner had bot been in collusion with the traders in any manner and has not committed the alleged cheating if any towards the Government of its Sales Tax Revenue; that the Out Agency of the petitioner is just like a city booking office for the facility of the traders so as to avoid their inconvenience and wastage of time, that no offence under any of the Sections enumerated above, has been committed by the petitioner, that when the railway authorities issued a notice for terminating the agency he moved a writ petition and a Division Bench of this Court allowed the functioning of the agency on 21.10.1993.

(3.) In a reply filed on behalf of the State of Haryana through the local Superintendent of Police, it has been averred that when several addresses given by the customers were checked those were found incomplete, that there was collusion between the present petitioner and the traders/manufacturers of utensils of Jagadhri who had been cheating the State Government of its sales tax by booking of goods in fictitious names and that the petitioner was in active collusion with such dealers and there was a considerable loss to the State Government every year, that the petitioner was duty bound to give full particulars and addresses on the Railway receipts issued by him in order to identify the consignor as well as the consignee, that there was evasion of sales tax amounting to Rs. 567025.00.