Judgment

DAS GUPTA, J. : ( On behalf of Subba Rao J. and himself.)

The appellant, who was a registration clerk in the Haveri Post Office in the Mysore State was tried by the Sessions Judge, Dharwar, on charges under S. 52, S. 53 and S. 55 of the Indian Post Office Act. The prosecution case is that on the 18th October 1955 a registered letter containing half portion of a ten-rupee note and a petition on behalf of one Muppayeagonda asking for the said note to be exchanged for a fresh note was received at the Haveri Post Office at 4.30 p.m. from the Branch Post Office at Kabbur. The appellant who was a registration clerk at Haveri at the time, however, detained the registered envelope instead of despatching it that very day as he should have done. He depatched it the next day. It was the prosecution case that the appellant removed the half portion of the ten rupee currency note from inside the envelope and to cover up his misconduct made alterations in the petition contained in the envelope and in the list of registered articles. All this was discovered, it is said, when the Reserve Bank of India, to which this envelop was addressed made enquiries in the matter on finding that no note h