STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH Vs. SUNDER CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE issue which arises for consideration, in the present appeal, is as to whether findings returned by the Court below, in the absence of criminal intent on the part of the accused, in committing theft of Government property i.e. forest produce, are legally sustainable and born out from the record or not.

(2.) ASSAILING the judgment dated 30.11.2005, passed by Chief Judicial Magistrate, District Kinnaur at Reckongpeo, H.P., in Criminal Case No. 44 -3 of 2003, titled as State Versus Sunder Chand, State has filed the present appeal under the provisions of Section 378 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

(3.) THE accused was charged for having committed offences punishable under the provisions of Section 379 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 33 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), to which he did not plead guilty and claimed trial.