KISHUN MAL Vs. SAKAL RAJ MAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are two suits brought against the same defendant Sakal Raj Mal, for damages on account of an alleged false prosecution. The defendant prosecuted the plaintiff in the two suits for an offence of theft. The charge brought by the defendant was that early in the morning of 27 October 1925, at 3 a.m. he got up and went out to feed his cattle, when he saw the plaintiff removing hay from his cattle shed. An alarm was raised, whereupon the plaintiff's friends arrived, and there was a lathi fight and the plaintiff was rescued. In fact some of the plaintiff's friends were badly injured and their story, according to a complaint subsequently lodged, was that there was a dispute for possession of a tree which ended in a lathi fight between the parties. The criminal Court held the theft story of the defendant to be false and acquitted the plaintiff, while the defendant was convicted for causing hurt to the plaintiff.

(2.) The present suits for damages were decreed by the trial Court. On appeal, the learned Judge of the lower appellate Court put before him the following issue for decision:

(3.) Whether the complaint brought by Sakal Raj Mal against the plaintiffs in both cases was false to his knowledge?