SURENDRA NATH GOSWAMI Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner in this rule has been convicted under Section 477-A, I. P. C, and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year. The case for the prosecution which has resulted in the aforesaid conviction is briefly this: The petitioner was Head Clerk under a Permanent Way Inspector, B. Edwards, in the East Indian Railway at Howrah. One Panchanon Dutt was a pay clerk. Two persons Bhunoo and Punit were employed as office peons under the petitioner. The prosecution case is that between the dates 16 March 1928 and 15 February 1929 these persons were concerned in making payments to coolies employed on the railway. In token of receipt thumb-impressions of the payees were taken on pay sheets during the ten months of this period. According to the evidence, the duty of the petitioner as Head Clerk was to calculate wages and to enter the amounts on the pay sheets, while the pay clerk made the payments and certificates of correctness were given at the bottom of the pay-sheets over the signature of the Permanent "Way Inspector. According to the prosecution the petitioner took the thumb-impressions of the payees. What he did was that in a great many cases he took the thumb-impressions of Bhunoo and Punit and also of one Sudhun now deceased against the names of other persons purporting to be those of coolies. These impressions were therefore false and it is alleged that thereby payments were taken in the name of fictitious persons or wrong persons. On these allegations Panchanon was charged under Section 408, I. P. C for having committed criminal breach of trust in respect of a total sum of Rs. 1,652 odd. The petitioner was charged under Secs.408 and 114, I. P. C, and also charged with con-spiracy under Section 120-B, I.P.C. He was further charged under Section 477-A, I.P.C. for having made false entries in the pay-sheets in question. Panohanon was acquitted of all the charges. The petitioner has been convicted, as 1 have said before, only on the charge under Section 477-A. The man B. Edwards is said to be in Australia. Bhunco and Punit were also sent up for trial; but they pleaded guilty at an early stage of the case and were convicted on that plea and were subsequently examined as witnesses.

(2.) The defence of the petitioner in this case was that he had no fraudulent intent. It was not disputed that in certain cases the thumb-impressions were not of the persons against whom they appeared. But the defence alleged that, so far as the petitioner was concerned, he was under the impression that the payments were being taken on behalf of proper persons.

(3.) The first ground on which this rule was issued is that the manner in which the charge under Section 477-A has been framed is in contravention of Section 234, Criminal P.C. The charge runs thus: First you at Howrah and elsewhere between 16 March 1928 and 15 February 1929, being servants of the E I. Ry. wilfully and with intent to defraud made or abetted the making of false entries in the pay-sheets of P. W. gang-men by affixing false thumb-impressions, entering bogus names and giving raise certificates therein and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 477-A, I.P.C. and within my cognizance.