TMI Blog1970 (10) TMI 74X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Swaminarayan Mandir and Narayan Mandir . The 1st accused in both those complaints was the Acharya, the 10th was said to be the Mahant and the other accused the associated trustees at the relevant time. It was said that all these trustees were appointed under two different schemes framed by the High Court of Bombay. The trial court convicted the accused but in appeal the High Court of Gujarat acquitted all of them. It held that there is no proof to show that accused 2 to 10 were the trustees of the institutions at the time the alleged offence took place. It allowed the appeal of the 1st accused on the ground that the prosecution has failed to prove the required mens rea on his part. The State of Gujarat and the Charity Commissioner have br ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... trusts in question during the Samvat years 2014 and 2015. This is not a case where a trustee has failed to deposit the amounts in his hands but is a case of unauthorised withdrawals. There is no evidence to show that accused 2 to 10 knew about those withdrawals even if we assume that they were the trustees during the Samvat years 2014 and 2015. Hence the case against them must necessarily fail. Now coming to accused No. 1 his case is that he withdrew the amount from his Hathu Khata which Khata according. to him is his private Khata. There is no contra evidence. The complainant's witness admitted during his cross-examination that accused No. 1 kept a huge sum with the trust and that no interest was given to him in respect of that amou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nsists of money and cannot be applied immediately or at any early date to the purposes of the public trust the trustee shall be bound (notwithstanding any direction contained in the instrument of the trust) to deposit the money in any Scheduled bank as defined in the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, in the Postal Savings Bank or in a Co-operative bank approved by the State Government for the purpose or to invest it in public securities : Provided that such money may be invested in the first mortgage of immovable property situate in (any part of India) if the property is not leasehold for a term of years and the value of the property exceeds by one-half the mortgage money : Provided further that the Charity Commissioner may by gene ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a statute, however comprehensive and unqualified the language of the statute, it is usually understood as silently requiring. that the element of mens rea should be imported into the definition of the crime, unless a contrary intention is expressed or 5 6 1 implied. In other words, the plain words of the statute are read subject to a presumption, which may be rebutted, that the general rule of law that no crime can be committed unless there is mens rea has not been ousted by the particular enactment. The mens rea means some blameworthy mental condition, whether constituted by knowledge or intention or otherwise. But this rule has several exceptions, as observed by Lord Evershed in Lim Chin Aik v. The Queen ([1963] A.C. 160). Where the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ng a civil right. But, except in such cases as these, there must in general be guilty knowledge on the part of the defendant, or of some on whom he has put in his place to act for him, generally, or in the particular matter, in order to constitute an offence. The present case, in our opinion, falls within the first category mentioned above Section 35(1) deals with a quasi-criminal act. This Court in Ravule Hariprasada Rao v. The State ([1951] S. C. R. 322) ruled that unless a statute either clearly or by necessary implication rules out mens rea as a costituent part of the crime, a person should not be found guilty of an offence against the criminal law unless he has got a guilty mind. The same view was reiterated by this, Court in State ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he enactment. One must put oneself in the position of a legislator. It has long been the practice to recognise absolute offences in this class of quasi criminal acts, and one can safely assume that, when Parliament is passing new legislation dealing with this class of offences, itse silence as to mens rea means that the old practice is to apply. But when one comes to acts a truly criminal character, it appears to me that there are at least two other factors which any reasonable legislator would have in mind. In the first place a stigma still attaches to any person convicted of a truly criminal offence, and the more serious or more disgraceful the offence are greater the stigma. So he would have to consider whether, in a case of this gravity ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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