PARSANO Vs. HAZARA SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition under Section 417 (8) or the Code of Criminal Procedure for grant of special leave to appeal from an order dated 28th February, 1967, of the additional Sessions Judge, Amritsar, acquitting the respondent of the charges under Section 406, Indian Penal Code. Notice of this petition was issued to the respondent under order, dated 16th August, 1967 by Gurdev Singh and Jindra Lal, jj.

(2.) THE first objection taken by the respondent to this petition is that it is time-barred. He first argued that the provisions of Section 29 of the Limitation Act do not empower this Government to extend limitation and condone the delay by the application of Section 5 of the Act. In support of his contention, Mr. Jawahar Lal gupta has cited Koshalya Rani v. Gopal Singh, AIR 1963 Punj 145 and Kaushalya rani v. Gopal Singh, AIR 1964 SC 260. In the alternative, he contends that even if section 5 of the Act is applicable, then also no sufficient cause has been shown as to why the petitioner delayed the making of this petition for fourteen days after the expiry of the limitation.

(3.) IN reply, Mr. Harbans Singh Gujral, learned counsel for the petitioner, contends that these rulings of the Punjab and the Supreme Court were given under the old limitation Act of 1908, which has since been repealed and under Section 29 of the new Limitation Act of 1963, the provisions of Section 5 are applicable even to applications under local and special laws including petition under Section 417 (3)of the Code of Criminal Procedure. He has referred to the affidavit of his client, smt. Parsano wherein she has sworn that he had obtained a copy of the trial courts judgment on 22nd February (March) 1967. She misplaced the copy and was labouring under a wrong impression that the said copy was in the brief of the lawyer. When she had to start for Chandigarh on 1st May 1967, she detected the mistake and continued to search for the said copy. Eventually, it was found in the papers of her husband, Surjan Singh, mixed up with the papers regarding their son, Gian Singh. It was found out on the morning of 16th May, 1967, whereafter the papers were completed to file the appeal.