AB KABIR Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an application under S. 561 -A of the Criminal P. C., seeking expunction of certain disparaging remarks made against the petitioner by the first class Magistrate at Sopore in his judgment in State v. Khaliq Bohru and Ama Bohru.

(2.) PROSECUTION under S. 379 of the Penal Code was launched against Khaliq Bohru and Ama Bohru for alleged theft of some timber belonging to a firm known as "Baldev Singh Sardool Singh. A charge under S. 379 of the Penal Code was duly framed against the accused persons, who thereupon entered their defence. In the course of defence, they set up that they were being prosecuted as a result of the efforts of the petitioner who was on bad terms with one Ghulam Mohi -ud -Din Bohru, a close relation of theirs. The Magistrate thereupon called the petitioner as a court witness under S. 540 of the Criminal P. C. and recorded his evidence.

(3.) IN his judgment he Magistrate expressly stated that there was no direct or indirect evidence to connect the petitioner in any manner with the prosecution and that the allegation of the accused persons that the prosecution was the result of the efforts of the petitioner was totally devoid of substance. But the Magistrate was nor prepared to accept the statement made by the petitioner in his evidence that he bore no ill -will towards Ghulam Mohi -ud -Din Bohru against whom he had instituted a suit for damages. While saying so, the Magistrate remarked that the petitioner "no doubt possesses a saintly apnearance but he by no means can claim to be a saint and his mere sainlly appearance, as the maxim goes "appearance is always deceptive," should not deceive us in the least." This passage has aggrieved the petitioner who, therefore, asks forits expunction from he judgment.