JUDGMENT :- The appellants were tried by the Special Judge, Nagpur, constituted under M.C.O.C. Act, 1999, in Special Case No.2/2001 for offence punishable under section 3(1)(ii) as well as section 3(4) of M.C.O.C. Act, 1999.

2. The charge contained imputations namely that, the accused were during the period of 10 years preceding 25-6-2001, named as accused in various offences, each amongst those was punishable with sentence for a period more than 3 years. The charge-sheet narrates 17 cases against accused Nos. 1, 11 cases against Nos.2 and 12 cases against accused No.3. The charge-sheet also consists of 2 preventive measure cases under Section 110(e) & (g) of Cr.P.C. against all the 3 accused persons, initiated first by Sonegaon Police Station and another by Dhantoli Police Station under 2 different Istegasha, each relating to one of the chapter cases, and accused have been ordered to execute bond for maintaining peace and order. These two chapter cases are relied upon as additional circumstance.

3. It is seen from the record that the copies of charge-sheet and fact that competent Judicial Magistrate has taken cognizance of these offences and issued process, was brought on record.

4. After completion of the trial, the learned Special Judge has reached the conclusion of holding the accused persons guilty of offence punishable under Section 3(1)(ii) as well as Section 3(4) of M.C.O.C. Act.

5. After hearing the learned advocate for the accused persons on the point of sentence, the learned Special Judge ordered different sentences as follows :-

for O/u S.3(1)(ii) for O/u S.3(4)

Accused No.1 - R.I. for 10 years; R.I. for 7 years

Accused No.2 - R.I. for 10 years; R.I. for 7 years

Accused No.3 - R.I. for 10 years; R.I. for 7 years

6. The present appeal is against the said judgment and order of conviction and sentence.

7. Heard the learned advocate for the appellants in support of appeal. The learned Advocate for the appellant had made it clear that the grounds of appeal as incorporated in the memo would be amplified during the course of submissions and there would be no other points to be urged.

8. In order to have the points of submission ready at hand, it would be useful to draw the grounds contained in memo of appeal for ready reference. Those are quoted below :(i) That, the prosecution has failed to prove the ingredients of section 3(1)(ii) and 3(4) against the present appellants.

(ii) That, the prosecution has failed to prove that the Appellants are members of an organised crime syndicate. Therefore, the provisions as envisaged in Sec. 2(f) of the M.C.O.C. Act is not satisfied.

(iii) That, mere presentation of the charge-sheets against the appellants is not sufficient to prove that their acts fall within the meaning of Section 2(d) of the M.C.O.C. Act, which speaks about "continuing unlawful activity".

It is submitted that the appellants are not convicted in any of the criminal cases registered against them and, therefore, launching of various prosecution against them cannot be treated for holding them guilty.

(iv) That, moreover the prosecution has utterly failed to follow provisions of Section 23(2) of the M.C.O.C. Act, which is a mandate.

(v) That, the special court has also relied on the provisions of Sections 16 and 17 of the M.C.O.C. Act. It is submitted that recently the Bombay High Court has held that Sec.16 of the M.C.O.C. Act needs to be struck down from the Act.

(vi) That, the trial Court has not considered the defence put forth by the Appellants and therefore, the impugned judgment needs to be set aside.

9. In order to amplify the submissions, the learned advocate for the appellant further urged the following :(i) while it is true that accused persons were subjected to trial in various offences, the fact requires this court's consideration, is that neither of the offences have reached a conclusion and amongst those in no case the accused have been convicted and sentenced so far;

(ii) there were certain other offences in relatio

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