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2002 Supreme(Cal) 502

High Court Of Calcutta
MALAY KUMAR BASU
PRADIP KR.SENGUPTA - Appellant
Versus
STATE OF WEST BENGAL - Respondent
CRIMINAL 1592  Of  2001
Decided On : 07/30/2002

Advocates Appeared:
ANJAN PAUL, DIPAK SENGUPTA, NILAY SENGUPTA, Tirthankar Ghosh, UTTAM KUMAR MAJUMDER

The accused does not have the right to file a petition to refer a document to a Handwriting Expert for examination during the prosecution's evidence stage, and the trial court's order rejecting such a petition is not revisable.

Headnote:

CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE - SECTION 243 - EVIDENCE ACT - SECTION 79 - ADMISSIBILITY OF EVIDENCE - ACCUSED'S RIGHT TO ADDUCE EVIDENCE - REJECTION OF PETITION TO REFER DOCUMENT TO HANDWRITING EXPERT - REVISABILITY OF ORDER - INTERLOCUTORY ORDER.

Fact of the Case:

The accused, Pradip Kumar Sengupta, was charged with cheating and forgery under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for allegedly submitting false particulars about his qualifications to obtain employment at Titan Engineering Co. Pvt. Ltd. The trial court admitted a Bio-data allegedly filed by the accused into evidence, but rejected his petition to refer the document to a Handwriting Expert for examination.

Finding of the Court:

The court held that the trial court's order rejecting the accused's petition was not revisable because it was an interlocutory order and the accused had the opportunity to challenge the admissibility of the document during the trial.

Issues: 1. Whether the accused has the right to file a petition to refer a document to a Handwriting Expert for examination during the prosecution's evidence stage? 2. Whether the trial court's order rejecting the accused's petition is revisable?

Ratio Decidendi: 1. The accused does not have the right to file such a petition during the prosecution's evidence stage because the law does not provide for it. 2. The trial court's order is not revisable because it is an interlocutory order and the accused has the opportunity to challenge the admissibility of the document during the trial.

Final Decision: The court dismissed the accused's revisional application.

MALAY KUMAR BASU, J.

( 1 ) IN this order it is to be considered whether the revisional application filed by the applicant, Sri Pradip Kumar Sengupta, who is the accused in G. R. 347 of 1995 of the Court of the learned S. D. J. M. , Durgapur should be admitted.

( 2 ) THE relevant facts leading to the filing of this Revisional application may be summarised as follows. The abovementioned Criminal Case in question (G. R. 347/95) arising out of Coke Oven P. S. Case No. 31 dated 17-4-1995 was filed against the present petitioner by one Sri Indrajit Sengupta, the de facto complainant, who was the Director of Titan Engineering Co. Pvt. Ltd. , in which the petitioner was also another Director at the relevant point of time. The complaint was lodged on 17-4-1995 against the petitioner on the ground that he had submitted false particulars about his qualification, etc. and obtained the employment under the said company by practice of fraud.

( 3 ) ON the basis of this FIR, police started investigation and after the investigation was complete, it submitted a charge-sheet under Section 420/409 of the I. P. C. before the Court of the learned S. D. J. M. , Durgapore. On the basis of the materials on record and after hearing the arguments of both sides, the learned trial Magistrate framed charge against the accused petitioner under Section 420 of the I. P. C. Here it should be mentioned that before the charge was framed, the accused petitioner filed a petition before this Court praying for quashment of the proceeding in question and a single Bench of this Court allowed his prayer and quashed the criminal proceeding and against the order the de facto-complainant preferred an S. D. P. before the Hon'ble Supreme Court and after hearing of the same, the Apex Court came to the finding that from the materials on record a prima facie case under Section 420 of the I. P. C. had been established, although no case under Section 409 of the I. P. C. was made out and in that view of the matter the Apex Court sent the matter back to the learned trial Court for trial so far as it related to the offence under Section 420 of the I. P. C. After that, the Court of the learned trial Magistrate framed the above-mentioned charge in presence of the accused petitioner and after hearing his learned Advocate. Thereafter, the learned Court below commenced the trial of the case and during the examination of the PWs it admitted into evidence a Bio-data which was filed by the prosecution and the Court marked it as an exhibit. However, before the same was admitted into evidence, the accused petitioner filed a petition before the learned trial Court for an order referring the said document, namely, the impugned Bio-data, allegedly filed by the accused petitioner to a Hand writing expert for examination and report on the ground that it was a forged one and was not in his own handwriting or signature. But the learned Magistrate rejected this petition and went on with the trial and in course of that it admitted the said document, namely, that Bio-data, into evidence making it as an exhibit, for the prosecution.

( 4 ) BEING aggrieved by this order of the learned Magistrate rejecting his prayer for referring the document to Hand writing Expert for examination the accused-petitioner has preferred the present revisional application challenging the order as erroneous and illegal and liable to be set aside.

( 5 ) MR. Ghosh, learned Advocate appearing on behalf of the de facto-complainant, has entered his appearance during hearing on this matter and has opposed the admission of this revisional application on the ground that under the law there is no scope for the accused petitioner to make any such prayer before the Court the Court when the prosecution evidence was being adduced. According to him, under the Law of Evidence the accused has no burden to discharge and whether any particular document being relied upon by the prosecution is genuine or not, or, whether in the face of such









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