Judgment

SHELAT, J. :- This appeal, by special leave, is directed against the summary dismissal by the High Court of Bombay of the appeal filed by the appellant against the order of conviction and sentence passed against him by the Sessions Court, Greater Bombay. Since the appellant s appeal was rejected in limine, there were two alternatives before us, either to remand the case to the High Court with a direction that it should decide the appeal on merits or to decide it ourselves. We decided to follow the latter course in view of the fact that a long time has already elapsed since the trial of the appellant together with the other accused commenced, and a remand to the High Court would result in still further delay.

2. Sadiq Hussain Shah (Original accused 1). Tribhuvan Nath (original accused 2 and the appellant herein). Umesh Pandurang and Rusi Mistry (original accused 3 and 4) were tried before the Additional Sessions Judge, Greater Bombay on charges under Section 120B read with Sections 381, 411, 467, 419 and under Section 467 read with Sections 471 and 420 of the Penal Code. The allegations on which the said charges were based were that the four accused and one. Yaralikhan (absco