SHASHI BUSHAN Vs. KARAM CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Petitioner filed a complaint against Respondent No. 1 under Sections 406, 419 and 420 IPC alleging that Respondent No. 1 was one of the partners but the bank account was to be operated by the Petitioner only. The accused received payment for the goods sold and deposited the amount in his own account, describing himself as sole proprietor of the firm. A direction was issued for registering the complaint as FIR and after investigation, challan was filed.

(2.) THE trial Court discharged Respondent No. 1. It was held that a partner has undefined ownership along with other partners over all the assets of the partnership and the chooses to use any of them for his own purposes, he may be accountable civilly but it will not amount to criminal offence. Reliance was placed on judgments of this Court in Parmodh Kumar v. Satish Kumar,, 1984 Cri LT 3, Ramesh Kumar and Anr. v. The State of Haryana,, 1983 (1) C.L.R.97 and a judgment of the Calcutta High Court in Tapan Kumar Mitra v. Monick Lal Dey, : 1987 Cri. L.J. 1483. judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in R.K. Dalmia and Ors. v. The Delhi Administration, : AIR 1962 SC 1821, was distinguished.

(3.) LEARNED Counsel for the Petitioner submitted that the fact that the Petitioner alone was entitled to open the bank account and the accused opened the bank account by describing himself as proprietor, was enough to infer dishonest intention.