TMI Blog1952 (10) TMI 35X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lary not much below that of a High Court Judge for handling this and other complicated cases. 3. The facts giving rise to these appeals are these: The Hanuman Bank was incorporated in Tanjore in 1933 with an authorized capital of ₹ 20,000/-. This was increased to five lakhs in 1943, and to seven lakhs in 1946. Accused 1, a retired Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department, was the President of the Board of Directors of the Bank. Accused 2, an ex-clerk of the Registration Department, was its Managing Director. Accused 3, an ex-clerk of some coffee plantations, was one of the promoters of the bank and also its director. Accused 4, a doctor practising at Nagapattinam, was another director. Accused 5 was the auditor of the bank from its inception, while accused 6 was his assistant. Accused 7 to 10 held the office of Secretary, Accountant, Assistant Secretary and Inspector respectively. Accused 11 was the agent of the Nagapattinam branch, while accused 12 was an ordinary clerk. Accused 13 was the agent at Madras from 1945 after having been in employ since 1937. Accused 14 is the son of the Managing Director (accused 2) and after enrolment as an advocate is said to have been ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... necessary before proceeding further with the case that the prosecution should place before the Court in writing briefly a summary of its case as has been disclosed by the evidence against the accused individually or jointly and the section of law under which such acts constitute an offence. In response to this order the prosecution presented to the Court a statement of the case covering 78 typed pages, which the High Court says it glanced through in amazement. The Magistrate then proceeded to examine the accused and spent four months over it. Arguments in the case started in December 1950 and were continuing till March 1951. No wonder that at this moment of time the Magistrate fell ill and went into retirement. Meantime, an application had been filed by the Assistant Public Prosecutor to convert this into a preliminary register case and commit it to sessions. 6. A new magistrate then took charge of the case and passed an order directing the accused to be tried by the Court of session. This order was set aside in revision by the High Court (Mack J.) and the magistrate was directed to frame charges, if any, against the several accused after discharging those accused against wh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... st bear full responsibility for the charges framed in this case. The present impasse is not the result of the law which presumes a certain amount of commonsense, practicability and responsibility not only in the accusation of a criminal conspiracy but also in its conduct of such a prosecution. We can find nothing whatsoever wrong or 'mala fide' in the accusation of conspiracy to falsify accounts from December 1946 but everything wrong with the way in which books, documents and papers of this bank under liquidation have been flung into this case without any attempt at selection or crystallising specific charges on which the prosecution sought to bring home the guilt to offenders. The Assistant Public Prosecutor has in fact tied himself, the case, the trying magistrate and also ourselves in a Gordian-knot of complication which is capable of no unravelling and one which can now, as it appears to us, be only cut through with a hatchet. We have no hesitation in quashing all the charges framed not on the legal ground of misjoinder, but for the other reasons we have given. One would have thought that in view of these observations the petitions should have been allowed and p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... inam. The prosecution has not made all directors who signed it vicariously liable and in fact has examined two of them, K. Narayanaswami Ayyar, P. W. 181, and S. Swaminatha Sastri, P. W. 139, as prosecution witnesses. In quashing these charges we do not think there should be any further trial of accused 4, 6, 11, 16, 17, 18 and 22 to 28 on any counts in this charge-sheet, though we do not exonerate them from culpability, in view of the protracted trial to which they have been subjected. The grounds given for absolving these accused during the pendency of a prosecution in the exercise of the powers under Section 561-A, Criminal P. C., are absolutely untenable. These persons having been left out of the case, retrial of the rest leaves the prosecution with a maimed case and may well not have been ordered, particularly when it was open to the liquidator to seek redress against the delinquents on the civil side. Any further trial of these cases would mean unnecessary harassment of the accused persons and is likely to result in injustice. 10. We have further not been able to follow why it was necessary to transfer the case to the High Court and to deny the accused persons the righ ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
