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TMI Blog2022 (9) TMI 1549X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Assistant General Manager on 19.07.1974. After a period of thirteen years, in 1987, a complaint came to be filed against the Appellant for having allegedly purchased three houses and two pieces of land in Bihar, which according to the complainant, was disproportionate to Appellant's known sources of income. This complaint was inquired into, and after a detailed investigation, the allegations were found to be false. Except for a residential house in Patna, which the Appellant had purchased on 29.08.1988 for Rs. 2,26,500 with the help of a loan from the BSFC, no other assets could be traced to the ownership of the Appellant. However, despite finding no merit in the allegation, the investigation was kept pending. 4. In the meanwhile, life moved on and in 1996, the Appellant joined the Oil and Natural Gas Commission [hereinafter referred to as 'the ONGC'.] as Deputy General Manager on deputation, keeping his lien with the BSFC. Four years after joining ONGC, an FIR came to be registered against him on 21.02.2000, under Sections 13(l)(d) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 [hereinafter referred to as the 'PC Act'.] , on the same allegation that he possessed assets disp ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tion that he during the check period amassed. Although certain explanations have been advanced by the learned counsel for the petitioner but the same appears to be looked into and appreciated during the course of trial when the accused petitioner wife have a chance to prevents innocence producing his oral or documentary evidences. For the present I am not satisfied with the explanation so produced by the accused in his favour in support of his discharge application. Considering the aforesaid facts and circumstances the charge petition of the accused petitioner namely Kanchan Kumar is hereby rejected. Put up on 22.04.2016 for framing of charge. The accused is directed to remaining physically present on the date so fixed by this court for framing of charge." 7. Aggrieved by the dismissal of his application for discharge, the Appellant moved the High Court. After recounting the chronology of events, the High Court proceeded to quote judgment after judgment, and finally dismissed the revision application by merely holding that: "15. In the aforesaid circumstances, even if considering the submissions made on behalf of petitioner, for argument's sake needs proper verification attr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... erewith, 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." 13. The threshold of scrutiny required to adjudicate an application under Section 227 of the Cr.P.C., is to consider the broad probabilities of the case and the total effect of the material on record, including examination of any infirmities appearing in the case. In Prafulla Kumar Samal (supra), it was noted that: "10. Thus, on a consideration of the authorities mentioned above, the following principles emerge: (1) That the Judge while considering the question of framing the charges under Section 227 of the Code has the undoubted power to sift and weigh the evidence for the limited purpose of finding out whether or not a prima facie case against the accused has been made out. (2) Where the materials placed before the Court disclose grave suspicion against the accused which has not been properly explained the Court will be fully justified in framing a charge and proceeding with the trial. (3) The test to determine a pr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ted: "23. At the stage of framing the charge in accordance with the principles which have been laid down by this Court, what the court is expected to do is, it does not act as a mere post office. The court must indeed sift the material before it. The material to be sifted would be the material which is produced and relied upon by the prosecution. The sifting is not to be meticulous in the sense that the court dons the mantle of the trial Judge hearing arguments after the entire evidence has been adduced after a fullfledged trial and the question is not whether the prosecution has made out the case for the conviction of the accused. All that is required is, the court must be satisfied that with the materials available, a case is made out for the accused to stand trial. A strong suspicion suffices. However, a strong suspicion must be founded on some material. The material must be such as can be translated into evidence at the stage of trial. The strong suspicion cannot be the pure subjective satisfaction based on the moral notions of the Judge that here is a case where it is possible that the accused has committed the offence. Strong suspicion must be the suspicion which is pr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... een acquired during the check period, it is impermissible to include their value in the expenditure. We are therefore of the opinion that the Appellant's objection about inclusion of this amount in the list of expenditure is fully justified. Unfortunately, even this objection, which did not require much scrutiny of the material on record, was not considered by the Special Judge (Vigilance) or the High Court. 17. The three heads of expenditure discussed hereinabove must be excluded from Appellant's total alleged expenditure during the check period. First, the Appellant's actual balance amount reflected in the Bank Passbook, i.e., Rs. 11,998, as against the purported account balance of Rs. 55,000, must be taken into account. Further, the second and third amounts, as indicated above, must be excluded from Appellant's total expenditure mentioned in the chargesheet. Accordingly, the total expenditure comes only to Rs. 2,69,355, and not Rs. 5,24,386, which is based on certain mistakes that we have indicated hereinabove. It is this expenditure of Rs. 2,69,355 which is to be contrasted with the income of Rs. 3,01,561 during the checkperiod. These facts clearly demonstrate that t ..... 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