VELAYUDHAM PILLAI Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The two appellants have been convicted in this case by the learned Additional Sessions Judge of Coimbatore, of various charges connected with the manufacture of what according to the prosecution are counterfeit <JGN>King</JGN> -Emperor e coins during May, 1936. The facts found by the learned Judge and, in view of the legal argument to which I shall refer later, not seriously challenged in the appeal before me were that appeallant No. 1 instructed appellant No. 2 to make for him a number of two anna pieces and that when these pieces were manufactured, he made most of them up into a bundle which he gave to P.W. No. 3, his servant, with instructions that P.W. No. 3 should surreptitiously introduce them into the shop of P.W. No. 6 with whom he had lately conceived various grounds of enmity. Prosecution Witness No. 3 accordingly took the bundle and placed it in P.W. No. 6's shop. Information, was then given to the Police to the effect that if they searched P.W. No. 6's shop and house they would discover that he had counterfeit coins in his possession. A search was accordingly made and the bundle was duly discovered. It is on these facts that the two appellants were charged. There were four charges against them. The first was against accused No. 1 that some days before May 24, 1936, he had abetted the counterfeiting of <JGN>King</JGN> -Emperor's two anna coins by accused No. 2 and therefore he had committed an offence punishable under Secs.109 and 232, Indian Indian Penal Code. The second charge was that accused No. 2 had actually counterfeited those coins and committed an offence punishable under Section 232, Indian Penal Code. The third charge was that accused No, 1 had on May 24, 1936, been in possession of certain materials knowing or having reason to believe that they were intended to be used for the purpose of counterfeiting coins, an offence punishable under Section 235, Indian Penal Code. And fourthly accused No. 1 was charged at about the same time and place with being in possession of counterfeit coins fraudulently or with intent that fraud might be committed, an offence punishable under Section 243, Indian Penal Code. I ought at this stage to add that in addition to the contenterfeit coins discovered by the police in P.W. No. 6's shop, a few more coins said to be similar in design to those were also discovered in a cash box in accused No. 1's house.

(2.) The argument that has been pressed before me in appeal is a very ingenious one which does not seem to have occurred either to the learned Additional Sessions Judge or to any of the parties at the trial. It is this: that if coins are made to resemble genuine coins and the intention of the makers is merely to use them in order to foist a false case upon their enemiesi those coins do not come within the definition of "counterfeit coins" given in the Indian Penal Code. I think there can be no doubt that this argument must be accepted. The definition of "counterfeit" is to be found, in Section 28, Indian Penal Code, A person is said to "counterfeit" who causes one thing to resemble another thing, intending by means of that resemblance to practise deception, or knowing it to be likely that deception will thereby be practised. The important words for our present purpose in that definition are intending by means of that resemblance to practise deception. Now if the intention of a person who makes or causes coins to be made is to use them in order to commit some other offence such as giving false information against an enemy, that intention prima facie is not to practise such deception. If we examine the situation in the present case, we find that it was exactly the reverse of that intention. It was obviously the intention of accused No. 1 that the Police officers should be the first to see these counterfeit coins and that they should not be deceived by their appearance because if they were deceived then the whole purpose of making the complaint to the Police against P.W. No. 6, would be frustrated.

(3.) It is clear, therefore, that if the object of the manufacturer was to carry out this nefarious scheme of foisting a false case on P.W. No. 6, these coins are not counterfeit because they do not fall within the definition of Section 28. Of course there is no direct evidence in this case- that accused No. 1 and accused No. 2 were heard talking over the details of their plot. It is conceivable, theoretically, that all that accused No. 1 did was to go to accused No. 2 and ask him to make counterfeit coins without disclosing to him the reason why he wanted them. But on the other hand it is quite clear from the way in which the case has been treated and discussed in the judgment of the learned Additional Sessions Judge, and clear also from the actual four charges which have been framed in this case that the prosecution case was this, that the manufacture was for the deliberate purpose of foisting a false case on P.W. No. 6. There is nothing at all to suggest in this case that either accused No. 1 or accused No. 2 had attempted or intended to attempt to put these coins into circulation. And although some little difficulty is introduced into the case by the fact that certain coins were found not only in P.W. No. 6's shop but. also in accused No. l's cash box, that difficulty ought not to outweigh the fact that in the case as a whole stress was laid by the prosecution of the fact that both these coins and the others must nave been recently made by accused No. 2, and no kind of suggestion was made that either of the accused wished at any time to put these coins into circulation.