MUNICIPAL COMMITTEE Vs. LABHU RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY this judgment we shall dispose of fourteen appeals (Criminal Appeals Nos. 1028 to 1041 of 1966) which are directed against a similar number of orders, all dated the 18th of December, 1963, passed by Shri N. K. Jain, Magistrate 1st Class, Amritsar, in. the same number of complaints instituted by the Municipal Committee, Amritsar (hereinafter to be referred to as the Committee), each for an offence under Section 78 of the Punjab Municipal Act. 1911, and R. V. 65 of the Punjab Municipal Account Code, the order in each case being that the accused persons concerned be "discharged".

(2.) THE allegations made in the complaints mentioned above were identical except for the number and names of the accused persons in each of them and may be stated thus. In demi-offical letter No. XIII (39)-Vol. III/722 dated the 8th of April, 1959, addressed to the Executive Officer of the Committee, Shri Lakhi Singh, Examiner, Local Fund Accounts, Punjab, Jullundur, stated that considerable quantities of sugar had been imported into the Amritsar municipal limits without payment of octroi duty. The Committee passed resolution No. 52 dated the 9th of April, 1959, in pursuance of which the matter was reported to the police who held investigations and informed the committee by means of a letter dated the 19th of July, 1961, that an offence under Section 78 of the Punjab Municipal Act had been committed by the persons accused in each of the complaints mentioned above but that it was a non-cognisable offence, judicial action in regard to which could be taken only on a complaint filed by the Committee before the Court having jurisdiction. This letter was based on the report prepared by the police (as a result of the investigation) in which the details of the consignments of sugar imported into the Amritsar municipal limits as also of the octroi duty evaded on various occasions were given. Accused No. 1 (who is a different person or firm in each of the 14 cases) was the person or firm, according to the findings of the police, who had bought sugar from various mills and had brought the same to the Bhagtanwala Railway Station, Amritsar, under different railway receipts, the details whereof appeared in the police report. He deputed Sant Singh, a Station Broker working at the Bhagtanwala Railway Station (who figures as respondent No. 3 in Appeals Nos. 1028 to 1033 and 1039 to 1041, as respondent No. 6 in Appeal No. 1034, as respondent No. 8 in Appeal No. 1035, as respondent No. 4 in Appeal No. 1036 and as respondent No. 5 in Appeals Nos. 1037 and 1038) to take delivery of the sugar so imported which was intended for consumption, use or sale within the said municipal limits. Sant Singh was bound under Rules V. 23 and V. 24 of the Municipal Account Code to present the railway receipts in question at the railway barrier and to make payment of the octroi duty due on the goods covered by them before taking delivery thereof but he obtained such delivery without doing any such thing so that accused No. 1 and Sant Singh were guilty of offences under Rule V. 65 of the Municipal Account Code. Besides, accused No. 1, Sant Singh accused and the other accused had imported sugar within the octori boundary of the Amritsar Municipality without payment of octroi duty and with the intention of defrauding the Committee and all of them had, therefore, committed an offence under Section 78 of the Punjab Municipal Act as per information given by the police in their letter dated the 19th of July, 1961, above mentioned.

(3.) A list of documents accompanied each of the fourteen complaints. The documents mentioned included the demi-official letter addressed by the Examiner, Local Fund Account, Punjab, to the Executive Officer of the Committee, resolution No. 52 dated the 9th of April, 1959, passed by the Committee, the first information report made by the committee to the police, the report prepared by the police after investigation, the police investigation file, the records of the sugar mills concerned, the delivery register maintained at the Bhagtanwala Railway Station and the railway receipts mentioned in the police report.