TMI Blog1977 (3) TMI 150X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... High Court should be taken as detracting from the case of the prosecution, to which we have not applied our mind, as against accused Nos. 1 to 9. The case against those accused must take its due and lawful course. - Appeal Nos. 345-346 of 1976 - - - Dated:- 3-3-1977 - CHANDRACHUD, Y.V. GOSWAMI, P.K. AND SHINGAL, P.N. , JJ. For the Appellant : D. Mookherjee, and B.R.G.K. Achar For the Respondent : Frank Anthony, K.B. Rohtagi and M.N. Kashyap JUDGMENT CHANDRACHUD, J . These two appeals by social leave arise out of a judgment dated September 30, 1975 rendered by the High Court of Karnataka in Criminal Petitions Nos. 248 and 253 of 1975. By the aforesaid judgment the High Court in the exercise of its inherent powers has quashed proceedings initiated by the State of Karnataka appellant herein, against the respondents. The incident out of which these proceedings arise took place on December 6, 1973 in the Central Avenue of the Indian Telephone Industries Colony, Bangalore. Thyagaraja Iyer, accused No. 1, who was an employee of the Indian' Telephone Industries Ltd. was dismissed from service on September 20, 1973 on the allegation that he had assaulted a Canteen sup ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... justify or the circumstances may warrant. The contention of the accused that they ought to be discharged was accepted by the learned Additional Sessions Judge partly. lie held that there was no case against accused Nos. 11, 12 and 16 and that they were therefore entitled to be discharged. By an order dated August 8, 1975 the, learned Judge. discharged those three. accused in the. exercise of his powers under s. 227 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. We are informed that the correctness of that order is under challenge before the High Court in a proceeding taken by the State of Karnataka. We are not concerned with that order in these appeals. After discharging accused Nos. 11, 12 and 16 the learned. Judge, turning to the case against the remaining accused, observed that there was "some material to hold that they have had something to do with the incident which occurred on 6-12-1973 in the I.T.I. Colony Bangalore". The learned Judge adjourned the case to September 1, 1975 "for framing specific charges as made out from the material on record against the rest of the accused persons." Two revision petitions were filed against this order, one by accused Nos. 10, 13, 14 and 15 and t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... aterial on the record to connect the accused with the crime, says. the learned counsel, the case must go on and the High Court has no jurisdiction. to put a precipitate or premature end to the proceedings on the belief that the prosecution is not likely to succeed. This, in our opinion, is too broad a proposition to accept. -Section 227 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 2 of 1974, provides that: "If, upon consideration of the record of the case and the documents submitted therewith, and after hearing the submissions of the accused and the prosecution in this behalf, the Judge considers that there is not sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused, he shall discharge the accused and record his reasons for so doing." This section is contained in Chapter XVIII called "Trial Before a Court of Sessions". It is clear from the provision that the Sessions Court has the power to discharge an accused if after perusing the record and hearing the parties he comes to the conclusion, for reasons to be recorded, that there is not sufficient ground for proceeding against the accused. The object of the provision which requires the Sessions Judge to record his reasons is to enable the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ood of the respondents being convicted of any offence in connection with the attempted murder of the complainant could be predicated. A few bits here and a few bits there on which the prosecution proposes to rely are woefully inadequate for connecting the respondents with the crime, howsoever, skilfully one may attempt to weave those bits into a presentable whole. There is no material on the record on which any tribunal could reasonably convict the respondents for any offence connected with the assault on the complainant. It is undisputed that the respondents were nowhere near the scene of offence at the time of the assault. What is alleged against them is, that they had conspired to commit that assault. This, we think, is one of those cases in which a charge of conspiracy is hit upon for the mere reason that evidence of direct involvement of the accused is lacking. we have been taken through the statements recorded by the police during the course of investigation and the other material. The worst that can be said against the respondents on the basis thereof is that they used to meet one another frequently after the dismissal of accused No. 1 and prior to the commission of the assa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... harge affects a person's liberty substantially and therefore it is the duty of the court to consider judicially whether the material warrants the framing of the charge. It cannot blindly accept the decision of the prosecution that the accused be. asked to face a trial. In Vadilal Panchal's case. (supra) section 203 of the old Code was under consideration, which provided that the Magistrate could dismiss a complaint if after considering certain matters mentioned in the section there was in his judgment no sufficient ground for proceeding with the case. To art extent section 227 of the new Code contains an analogous power which is conferred on the Sessions Court. It was held by this Court, while considering the true scope of s. 203 of the old Code that the Magistrate. was not bound to accept the result of an enquiry or investigation and that he must apply his judicial mind to the material on which he had to form his judgment. These decisions show that for' the purpose of determining whether there is sufficient ground for proceeding against an accused the court possesses a comparatively wider discretion in the exercise of which it can determine the question whether the material on the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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