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2015 (4) TMI 414 - SC - Companies LawAppeal against order of high court to quashed the proceedings - Power of Special Courts - Cognizance of the offences under Sections 120B and 420 of the IPC or Section 621 of the Companies Act - Multiplicity of proceedings - Held that:- AS can be seen from the complaint the allegations are that the accused conspired with each other to cheat the complainant and a series of transactions gave rise to offence under Section 120B read with Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code as also Section 628 of the Companies Act. It is, therefore, clear that if the Special Court has jurisdiction to try offences under both the aforesaid Acts then the trial can certainly continue in respect of the offences which do not require the complainant to belong to the categories specified under Section 621 of the Companies Act. Thus the trial could certainly continue against those accused under the IPC. The High Court completely overlooked the fact that the complaint made allegations against the accused A4, A5, A6, A9 and A10 only in respect of Section 120B and 420 of Indian Penal Code and there was no reason in law to quash a complaint against them on the ground that they were immune from prosecution under Section 628 of the Companies Act by virtue of Section 621 of that Act. At this stage, it may be noted that the Special Court is empowered to try the offences under the Companies Act along with other Acts by virtue of a notification issued by the erstwhile Government of Andhra Pradesh dated 13.3.1981 which empowers such special Courts to try offences under specified enactments such as The Companies Act, 1956, The Income-tax Act, 1961, The Wealth-tax Act, 1957 etc.The said notification reproduced in the case of Kannur Abdul Kader Mohammed Habbefa [2015 (1) TMI 978 - ANDHRA PRADESH HIGH COURT]. Thus, even if a number of persons are accused of offences under a special enactment such as ‘the Companies Act and as also the IPC’ in respect of the same transaction or facts and even if some could not be tried under the special enactment, it is the special court alone which would have jurisdiction to try all the offences based on the same transaction to avoid multiplicity of proceedings. We make this observation because at some stage in the hearing learned counsels addressed us on this point. We make it clear that in the present case all the accused are liable to be tried by the special court in respect of the offences under the IPC as well as the Companies Act as alleged in the complaint. - Decided in favour of appellant.
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